Tempus Hime
by ButterflyMiko
Summary: What if Danny didn't have his powers when the Ghost King attacked? Vlad releases Ghost King but when he release the Ring of Rage another ghost awakens. Khione was the first ghost hybrid, and she and her "Master" have a plan to save our world from Pariah Dark, her father. This plan will create the hero, Danny Phantom!
1. Awakening

Vlad Plasmius was standing by a box with a purple cushion inside. He turned around, an evil grin on his face. Plasmius flew away, satisfied.

Plasmius flew into Pariah's Keep and into the castle. He flew through a hall full of skeletal guards and depressed-looking portraits of a guy who looks like George Washington. He opened a door at the end of the hall, leading into a room with a sarcophagus with an odd green light shining on it. He flew towards it.

"Here we are." Plasmius said.

He stopped at the foot of some stairs. A skeleton holding a pumpkin with a sword sticking out of it was in the background.

"Pariah's Keep." Plasmius said.

He looked over at the pumpkin.

"Home of the Fright Knight," Plasmius said and looked up at a sphere a skeleton was holding. In the middle of the sphere was a ring- the Ring of Rage. "And before that..."

Plasmius held up the Skeleton Key. He stuck it into a skeleton's nose, which was key-shaped and turned it. The sphere around the Ring dissolves, leaving a liquid residue on the skeleton's hands and dropping the Ring into Plasmius' hand.

"The Ghost King."

Xxx

In the Far Frozen, there was an Ice Coffin on the top of the highest peak in an Ice Palace.

At the moment the Ring of Rage was freed, the Ice Coffin shattered. A teen girl sat up.

The girl, Khione, had loose teal hair with a cowlick causing her hair to dangle over her face. She wore a dark blue dress with a fur collar and battle armor with a grey dragon on her shoulders and green battle pants.

"I must hurry." Khione said. "He must not be awakened."

She flew off towards Pariah's Keep.

Xxx

"And here I am, Vlad Plasmius-" He put the Ring on. "With all his power in the palm of my hand."

He flew up dramatically, beginning to laugh. The ring, however, merely sputtered and emits smoke. Plasmius, surprised, looked at the ring, and then looked away, frowning. He looked up at the crown at the top of the sarcophagus.

"Ah, of course. The Ring of Rage only works when one wears the Crown of Fire." Plasmius said.

He flew up to the sarcophagus and stuck the key into a triangle in its chest. One of those bird cawed. Plasmius turned the key. The sarcophagus' eyes glowed red. The birds flew out of the tree, and the coffin opened, revealing Pariah Dark, the Ghost King.

"Separately, they're nothing, but together-" Pariah's uneyepatched eye opened. "They give you power unimaginable."

Pariah stomped out of the coffin. Vlad looked at him, mortified. He was a huge, Scottish, maybe Viking-like ghost, with only one eye, horns, one of which was broken, a beard thing, and LOTS of hair. He wore a flaming crown- the Crown of Fire, obviously.

"Who dares?" Pariah said slowly and dramatically.

"Uh, hello. Plasmius, Vlad Plasmius, did I mention I'm a huge fan of your work?" Plasmius said uncertainly.

He smiled uncertainly. Pariah's eye narrowed.

Khione arrived and her eyes met Pariah's. She gasped and gave a cry of terror.

"He is awake! I was too late!" Khione whispered. "I must report this to Master. He will know what to do!"

In a whirl of ice and fire, Khione vanished.

An explosion rocked the castle, throwing Plasmius out.

Pariah pulled the sword out of the purple pumpkin. The pumpkin flew into the air and exploded, revealing the Fright Knight.

"The Fright Knight lives!" Fright Knight said.

Pariah threw the sword at Fright Knight. "To serve me."

The Knight looked quite surprised. He bowed at the sight of the King. "King Pariah! You're up!"

"And perhaps it's time to remind you-and that intruder- who RULES this place!" Pariah cried.

Plasmius was outside the castle, looking very beaten. "I've got to get out of here before he-" Pariah flew out of the castle, looming over Plasmius. "Finds me!"

Pariah grabbed Plasmius. "You have freed me from my sarcophagus, and thus woken me from the forever sleep." He brought Plasmius up to his face. He saw that he was not wearing the Ring of Rage. "You're not the one who woke me! YOU ARE A DUPLICATE!" The duplicate Plasmius disappeared in a wisp of pink smoke. "So, where…"

Pariah suddenly got a surprised look on his face, then grimaces. The real Plasmius, was currently back in the Keep, chatting up the Fright Knight.

"But surely, you and I could work out some sort of deal." Plasmius said.

"A deal?" Fright Knight's eyes narrowed.

Both were suddenly hit by a blast of red ectoplasm. Plasmius flew away from the fray.

"Call me." Plasmius dis a half salute. "We'll talk."

He flew out of the castle, past Pariah. Pariah fires a blast at him, which hits him full force. He was thrown back, smoking, and transformed back into his human form.

xxx

The Fenton Portal was open for no reason. Nearby, Jack and Maddie were working on the Fenton Pants. Jack plugged a plug into it, smiled, and pressed a button. Charges from the plug entered the suit, causing it to glow and stomp.

"Sweet! The Fenton Pants are charged and operational! I'm telling you, Maddie, once this ectoskeleton is finished it will be able to beat back any ghost, no matter how powerful!" Jack said.

Maddie bent over the Fenton Pants. "Yeah, but the interface is still glitchy and dangerous, Jack."

The Portal was lit up in the background.

"We need to work the bugs out before-" Maddie said.

Suddenly, a beat-up Vlad flew out of the Portal and crashed to the floor, Ring in hand. His hand closed on the ring. Jack and Maddie looked at him, horrified.

"Vlad Masters?" Maddie said as he was reflected in her eye-lenses.

Vlad held his hand up to Jack. "Jack, my fat old friend—Help me."

He fainted. Jack looked at him, terrified.

Xxx

Meanwhile a young teen arrived out of a natural Ghost Portal on the edge of Amity Park.

This girl, Kurai Hikari, had dark hair in pigtails and Japanese features.

"Master." She touched her pendant, which a watch shaped like a star. "I hope you are right about this. Such a heavy burden to place on a fourteen year old child."

In a whirl of Ice and Fire, Kurai transformed into the ghost from before, Khione, and looked up at the full moon.

"Good luck, Danny Fenton." She said. "Or, as you will soon be known; Danny Phantom."


	2. Frenemies

At Casper High, Danny was leaning against a tree, looking quite contented. Tucker walked up to him.

"You seem pretty happy today." Tucker said.

"Why shouldn't I be? I finished Lancer's totally useless book report." Danny leapt from the tree, hands on hips in a triumphant position. "Nothing could spoil this day."

He seemed to have spoken too soon. Dash and Kwan were nearby, and Dash was holding a football.

"Think fast, Fentoni!" Dash said.

He threw the football. Danny was hit and thrown back by the force of the football. Tucker rushed to him, mouth open. The football was on his chest. He leaned up, dazed. Dash and Kwan ran past him, laughing.

"You've gotta get him back for that." Tucker said.

"Already taken care of." Danny said.

He pointed to Dash and Kwan by their lockers. Dash's locker was straining to stay shut. He opened it, and toilet paper cascaded onto him. There were designs on the toilet paper.

"Come on, how good was that?" Danny said.

"He's going to find out it's you." Tucker said.

"Have you seen his grades? Never gonna happen." Danny laughed.

Dash held up some of the toilet paper. The design was Jack Fenton's face.

"Hey!" Dash yelled. "THIS IS FENTON WIPE!"

He turned over to where Danny and Tucker were standing, seething.

Danny, sensing impending danger, ran away. A Band Geek and Mikey were playing a Yu-Gi-Oh! type game (according to Danny, 'Nerd Poker').

"Aha! I blast you with my Ball of Infinite Exposition!" Band Geek held up said card.

"Aw man, you bored my character to death." Mikey said.

Danny burst through the doors to the cafeteria, looking for a place to hide. He saw the Band Geek's trumpet.

"FENTON!" Dash ran after him.

Fenton, however, was nowhere to be found. Dash ran out of the cafeteria. Under the cafeteria table, two little blue eyes peeked out from underneath: Danny's. He looked away and breathed a sigh of relief- a little too soon, it seemed. Kurai Hikari was also under the table, hiding as well. They noticed each other- and didn't acknowledge it well.

"Find your own hiding spot! I've got dibs on 'Under the Nerds Playing Nerd Poker'." Danny pointed behind himself. "Who are you anyway?"

"Kurai Hikari." Kurai said, pointing at herself. "Ease up, you're not the only one who needs to hide, you know."

Outside of the cozy little table, running by was the art teacher, Mrs Haruna.

"C'mon Kurai!" Haruna said. "You've got to submit your painting! You'll make me—I mean, you—famous!"

"Ugh." Kurai snorted.

Back under the table, Danny tried not to laugh.

"We could be here awhile." Danny said. "I'm Danny Fenton."

"Wanna check over our book reports?" Kurai suggested shyly.

Danny smiled.

Xxx

On a street in Amity Park, Danny and Kurai rounded the corner, panting. They ran over to a dumpster and attempted to hide behind it. Unfortunately, Tucker is already hiding there, curled in a somewhat fetal position. He pointed at Danny, silently asking, "What are you hiding from?"

"Hiding from Dash." Danny said.

Tucker pointed at Kurai.

"Hiding from Mrs Haruna." Kurai said as Haruna ran by. "You?"

Tucker pointed over.

"Tucker!" Maurice Foley ran by wearing a Revolutionary War costume. "C'mon we'll be late for the re-enactment! I get to be Paul Revere!"

He ran away. Back at the dumpster. Danny, Tucker, and Kurai peeked up from behind it.

"Cmon." Danny said, pulling them to FentonWorks. "Over there. We can all hide in my house."

He pointed to it. Danny and Tucker were running together. Kurai was behind them.

"So...what's up with this? Why are you helping her all of a sudden?" Tucker said.

"Ah, she hid me from Dash earlier today. I'm just returning the favor." Danny said.

They got to the steps of Danny's house.

"Well, be careful. The last thing you'd want to do is invite arch-enemy into your own house." Tucker said.

Kurai stopped at the steps, surprised, and then walked up behind them. The three opened the door to a surprising sight. Danny's jaw dropped.

Vlad was sitting in their living room, towel over his suit, having tea and playing chess with Jack. Maddie was holding the teapot, Jazz was reading a book, and the sight was not at all pretty.

Vlad casually moved a chess piece. "Ah, hello, Daniel!"

"Too late." Tucker said.


	3. Invasion

Danny would never forget Vlad Masters, the creepy guy who hit on his mom, bagged on his dad and tried to break up their marriage at the Wisconsin Reunion only to fail miserably.

"You!" Danny stomped over to where Vlad and the others were sitting. "What are you doing here?"

Maddie frowned, and poured the tea. The boiling hot tea purposely missed Vlad's cup and instead fell on his pants. He howled in pain.

"Totally valid question." Maddie held up the teapot.

"Still steaming?" Vlad asked.

"You have no idea." Maddie ground through her teeth.

Vlad turned his attention to Danny.

"I was just, you know, passing through." Vlad said, then added jokingly. "And then I saw that MARVELOUS Battlesuit and thought, since I can't just destroy Jack and take it, I suppose I'll steal its secrets right out from under his nose!"

Jack looked worried. Vlad was still smiling. A second later, they were laughing like the idiots they both are. All of the teens blinked twice. Jack and Vlad wiped their eyes, still laughing. Maddie walked over with the teapot.

Danny couldn't believe Vlad was seriously trying to antagonize his family again. He really hated that creepy guy.

"I swear, I am such a josher." Vlad held out his teacup. "More tea please." Maddie poured the tea on his head. "Not there! Ooh!"

He got up, covered in tea, frowning. Maddie merely walked away, scowling. Jack ran after her. Danny walked up to Vlad.

"I don't know what you're up to, Masters. Actually, I do. You just told me." Danny said. "You're such a criminal. I'm not going to let you just steal from my parents."

"What are you going to do about it, hm?" Vlad said. "Oh! Kurai Hikari, isn't it?"

"You know me?" Kurai said.

"How do you know her?" Danny asked.

Xxx

The Ecto-Exodus Alarm, which, like all other inventions, looks oddly like Jack- in this case, a bust of Jack. Its eyes glowed red. Jack and Maddie ran into the room where it was. Jack flipped up the top of the bust, revealing a button. He presses it. The family photo flipped over, revealing a panel labeled 'Ghost Zone Radar'. It pictured several ghost-like pixelly images moving towards one point.

"Galloping goblins, it's the Ecto-Exodus Alarm!" Jack said.

The teens ran over.

"The Ecto-whaty-what?" Danny, Kurai, and Jazz said.

"The Ecto-Exodus Alarm! An alarm that only goes off when we're about to face a massive ghost invasion!" Maddie said.

The Pacman Ghost-like ghost images raced closer to the point, the Fenton Portal.

Xxx

Kurai headed into the hallway and prepared to transform when Vlad appeared.

"Hello there Miss Hikari." Vlad said. "Trying to transform, Ghost Princess?"

"How do you..." Kurai paused as realization dawned. "You are Plasmius. The Ghost who freed my father."

Vlad put the Ring of Rage in her hand. "It belongs to you doesn't it?"

Kurai put it on. "Why would you give this to me? I might be planning to return it to my father."

"Oh I am fully aware of what master you serve." Vlad smiled vexingly. "Put in a good word for me, would you, Princess?"

Kurai rolled her eyes.

Xxx

Jack, Maddie, and Danny ran down the steps and stood in front of the Portal, bracing themselves.

"Ok here we go." Danny said.

It was only the Box Ghost. He stuck his head out of the portal, then his arms.

"Beware!" Box Ghost said.

Danny stared, then began laughing.

He'd seen his parents chase after this little guy all the time. He wasn't so scary!

"Oh man! Only you?" Danny said.

He had spoken too soon. A blue beam of ectoplasm shot out of the Portal and hit him square in the chest, knocking him to the ground. A boot landed on his chest. Out of nowhere came Skulker, standing on him. The Box Ghost was close behind.

"Skulker?" Maddie recognized the ghost.

Skulker turned to other ghosts. "I told you there was a way out through here."

Ember's head popped out of the portal, then Walker's, then an Ectopus , then Johnny 13's shadow. They all look very scared. Along with them comes about a million other ghosts, bursting out of the portal, shouting 'go go go'! Skulker follows up with the final-

"Goooo!" Skulker shouted.

The Ghosts burst out of the basement and go into the storm clouds above Danny's house in four columns, with a few stragglers. Back inside, Danny pulls Skulker off of himself and was dragged out of the house by the leg. Skulker threw him down one outside, but he gets back into position easily. Various ghost weapons were fired by Jack and Maddie in protection of their son.

Plasmius joined the fray along with Khione. Khione flew in front of Danny and protected him swiftly, and strangely enough, Plasmius began helping her.

"Why are you helping me?" Khione asked.

"I am a believer in a certain Far Frozen Prophecy." Plasmius grinned at her.

The fight was stopped by the Dragon Ghost, who is being ridden by Poindexter.

"Stop!" Poindexter said. "I say give the Savior a chance!"

Danny sat up looking frazzled. "Savior?"

Skulker flew down and got in Danny's face. "Whelp. You have twenty-four hours to prove to us that you are the one from the prophecy. If you fail, there will be war! And princess—" he looked at Khione. "You better hope he doesn't fail."

Xxx

In the Ghost Zone, three glowing green skeletons were standing in front of the Fright Knight.

"Your armies are amassed?" Fright Knight said. The skeletons grunted and saluted him. "Then on my orders-"

"On MY orders!" Pariah suddenly came up behind the Knight, surprising him. "Go to that world. Bring the Ring to me. And to those who stand in your way-show no mercy."

The three head skeletons and the Fright Knight bowed down before Pariah. He then walked over to a railing overlooking the skeleton armies. They grunted and raised their arms in salute to him. One skeleton's red eye glowed bright and then all went dark.


	4. Inception

Kurai stood front of Casper High. A school bell rang.

It was time to put her plan into action. She headed into the school.

Two nerdy-looking boys sat uncomfortably inside of an open locker. A hand shoved another nerdy-looking boy into the locker. The boy whimpered.

Dash and Kwan were in front of the nerd-filled locker admiring their handiwork.

"This could be a new record." Dash turned to look over at Kwan. "But there's still room for more!" Dash pointed to Kwan who was standing next to him in front of the nerd-filled locker. "Go get Mikey."

Kwan marched past Danny and Tucker. Danny was hunched and holding his backpack strap while Tucker leaned against the lockers, holding his PDA.

"So, what do you want to do tomorrow?" Danny said.

Tucker looked to his PDA.

"I don't know." Tucker said.

Tucker read his PDA. It said "MONDAY NOTHING" He tapped it with his thumb so it beeped to "TUESDAY NOTHING".

"According to my PDA," Tucker beeped it to "APRIL NOTHING". "we're free every night." He beeped it to "NEXT YEAR NOTHING", then "YEAR AFTER NOTHING". "through college."

Danny and Tucker peered into the PDA. Kurai stood behind Tucker. Danny and Tucker looked at her self-consciously.

"Hey." Kurai said. "You know...we need to talk."

"Yeah we do." Tucker leaned in close. "We should get to know each other."

Kurai made a face. "Seriously! Cmon Danny your family hunts ghosts. You saw what happened yesterday, there was a massive ghost invasion. We have to do _something_!"

The Box Ghost, along with several others, phased into the hallway. He towered over the teens.

"BEWARE!" Box Ghost yelled.

Kurai just rolled her eyes, not threatened in the least, but Danny and Tucker cringed.

"GHOST!" The two said and cowered.

Kurai stood in their defense.

"RA-JE!" Kurai shouted and a bright light flashed from her hand and the Box Ghost was blasted back to the Ghost Zone.

"Whoa!" Danny and Tucker yelled, and ran off.

"No! Danny!" Kurai followed. "You've gotta listen to me!"


	5. Glamour

Danny and Tucker were sitting at a table and both were enjoying pink ice cream cones with chocolate sprinkles. They looked self-conscious as the shadow of Kurai descended upon the table.

"Hi." Kurai said.

She was wearing a halter top, basically a very sexy red and white sports bra in all sequins. She wore very tight maroon leggings and a dark red that was almost black short skirt. She was also wearing cringe-worthy bright red heels.

Her make up was done expertly. Fake eyelashes, perfect eyebrows, sparkly foundation, red and white sparkly eyeshadow, a touch of pink blush, and crimson kiss-me lipstick.

And like a cherry on top, perfect French-tipped red toes and fingernails.

Both Danny and Tucker's mouths were in a perfect 'o.'

This went beyond the girls in their school, even beyond Paulina and Star. Kurai wasn't prettier than them, but man, she had STYLE!

"Mind if I join you?" Kurai raised an eyebrow. _Checkmate!_

Danny and Tucker were flabbergasted as they held their ice cream cones. A drop of ice cream on both their cones melted and splattered on the table in unison. Danny just chucked his ice cream away and smiled, rudely shoving Tucker out of his seat so he lost his grip on his ice cream and screamed at the sudden push. Tucker's cone slammed ice cream first on the table. Danny then grinned broadly with pleasure as he curled his fingers on the edge of the table.

Star and Paulina were in the next booth each holding paper red-and-white striped soda cups. Paulina had her arm on the back of chair, looking over it as she saw what's going down.

"Check out the style on the new girl!" Star said, unwisely, as Paulina grimaced.

"Well." Paulina said snarkily. "I guess plain girls can have style. Someone like her needs all the help she can get."

_BUI-MIKU! _Kurai chanted in her head.

The table Paulina was leaning on shattered and she fell into the splintered plastic. Shards of plastic were stuck in her hair.

Kurai chuckled. "Aw Paulina, you're already plastic enough, you don't need to add more!"

Kurai whirled and sat in front of Danny.

"Wait..." Danny snapped out of his dreamy phase. "You did something. And before, at school, you did something like that too. Do you have...powers?"

"Shh!" Kurai slapped her hand over his mouth and dragged him off to an abandoned park bench. "Yeah I have powers. But I need your help."

"Why me? I'm just a kid!" Danny said.

"Look I don't know exactly." Kurai said. "But it helps that you have Ghost Hunter parents and know how to work all of their gear."

"Ugh." Danny said. "You want me to don a jumpsuit with you and hunt ghosts?!"

Kurai shook her head. "I want you to get superpowers like me and hunt the TOP ghost. Afterwards, if you still want to, I'll return you to normal."

Kurai held out her hand. "I promise."

"Who _are_ you?" Danny said suspiciously.

"I'm someone who made a lot of mistakes." Kurai said. "I'm just now making up for them. Now come on. What could be so bad about kicking ghost butt, especially if one of those ghosts you get to kick is Vlad Masters?"

"Vlad is a ghost?" Danny said. "That...explains so much."

Danny took her hand. "Alright Snowflake, it's a deal."

"Snowflake?"

Danny grinned. "Cmon Kurai. It's always cold when your around, especially when you use your powers. So you gotta be some kinda icy ghost."

Kurai laughed and shook his hand, transforming. "You have no idea, Danny."

"Whoa!"


	6. Danny Phantom

At FentonWorks, the sky was dark, and it was night.

"All clear, Danny." Tucker said.

Tucker was in the lab by a giant console, peering up the staircase as he peeked around the corner. Danny stood in front of the deactivated Fenton Portal with his hands on his hips. Danny's white suit was hanging on a hook next to Kurai. Kurai was by a console next to the portal, examining the gauges. Cables ran all over the floor.

"Cool." Danny looked to the Portal. "How's it going over there?"

Kurai turned three dials expertly and pressed several buttons. "Pretty good. Looks like we're all set."

"Are you sure about this?" Kurai looked at Danny again, wishing he didn't have to shoulder this burden.

Danny looked into the chamber of the Portal, a hand in his hair on his forehead considering it.

"No." Danny put his hands behind him to refer to something in the past. "But you saw those things, those monsters ghosts! Those ghosts are attacking this world. Besides..." Danny smiled with curiosity as he looked inside. "I always wanted to go in here. Who knows what kind of awesome, super-cool things exist on the other side of that portal?"

Kurai and Tucker were by the gauges. Kurai held Danny's white jumpsuit with Jack Fenton's face on it by the shoulders. She threw it off.

Danny stood on a cable snaking into the chamber. He caught the suit by the shoulders, looking down at it.

Kurai pressed a square, blue button on it. It lit up and beeped.

Danny was now in the jumpsuit, his hand on the zipper. "Well, here goes everything."

Kurai took an emblem out of her pocket and walked over.

"Wait a minute." Kurai peeled off Jack Fenton's face and stuck the black emblem on.

Danny looked down. "Uh, what is that?"

Kurai Reassured Danny by putting her hands on her hips. "Just trust me, okay?"

Danny stepped in and looking over his shoulder into the Portal's depths.

Danny walked into the Portal, carefully and slowly.

Danny reached out and found the red and green buttons, reaching for the green "ON." Danny pressed the green one. It beeped.

The whole chamber filled with green light, zapping Danny and spilling the extra light into the lap. Danny screamed with hideous amounts of pain.

Light spilled out of the portal in white photons and made the lab all green.

Tucker and Kurai's eyes were shut tight due to all the light. They braced themselves.

Danny was in a wave of radiation, his hands up. He flickered, showing his internal skeleton as he flickered back, showing that he was now Danny Phantom, his suit colors reversed, his hair white and his eyes green, but that hasn't stopped him from screaming any.

Kurai looked over at the read-out of Danny's DNA.

Some green ectoplasmic blobs with red eyes and a mouth (Ghost DNA) dove onto it, smothering the strand in its ectoplasmic influence as the strand ends and spiralled off.

Danny flashed from full color to monochromatic green as he spirals into the black further away while green shock waves assaulted him in the background.

This all faded away to a cloud of green smoke. It cleared to show Danny's chest, which now has a white, DP logo on it that Kurai stuck on. Danny Phantom was now in front of the now active and open Fenton Portal, the back of his neck and both of his boots steaming with white. He opened his eyes, not knowing what happened. He looked down at himself. Then he put his hand together in front of him to observe them.

Danny's gloves flickered for a full, long second to show Danny's skeleton beneath it, then faded back to solid gloves.

Danny scrambled out of the Portal, putting his hands on the metal rim. He was panting heavily.

Danny had his hands on the rim of the Portal. He was smoking. He bent his knees and sat on the floor, then put his hand down to support him bending over as he put his other hand on his face. The smoke on him cleared. Kurai ran up and turned to him, concerned.

"Danny, are you-?" Kurai asked.

Danny's hand covered his face. Kurai put her hands under his armpits and supported him up. Danny yawned. He unconsciously turned intangible and Kurai's hands wisped through, she stepped away as Danny resumed his color.

Kurai stepped back as the intangible ghostly wisps faded from her hands.

"You're a ghost!" Kurai transformed into Khione and floated next to him. "Like me!"

Danny looked at himself in front of the portal. Khione floated and grinned. Tucker stared at both of them.

"You're right!" Danny Looked up, amazed. "I am a ghost! Cool!" He seemed confused if he should think that way. "Is this cool?"

Khione patted her hand on the emblem she put on his chest. "Oh, it's very cool."

Khione removed her hand and both she and Danny's eyes widened in shock at a voice calling out to them.

"What's going on down there?" Jack called.

"Oh man, your dad!" Khione transformed back in a whirl of ice and fire. Kurai raised her arms in urgency. "You've got to change back to normal!"

Danny didn't know how to do this. "Change back?" Danny Arched his eyebrows. "How?"

"Concentrate, Danny! Focus on your humanity!" Kurai said.

"WHAT?!" Danny exclaimed.

Jack peeked in. He marched downward. Jack was in the lab, Tucker beside the stairs hidden from Jack's view. Jack and Tucker turn to the left. Jack gasped.

Danny Fenton held a totally confused Kurai by the arm so she was leaning under him. They were kissing passionately under the Fenton Portal. The Fenton Portal behind them swirled in to a heart shape.

Danny stopped, whispering to her. "I call that a "fake-out make-out"."

Kurai blushed. Danny blushed.

Danny let go so they both stood up and turned, as Tucker and Jack walk in.

"You're in a lot of trouble, mister!" Jack shouted. "And who the heck are you?"

Kurai grinned. "I'm Paulina!"

"Then Danny Fenton is never, ever allowed to see you, Paulina." Jack commanded.

Kurai smiled gleefully. She hated that plastic girl.


	7. Training

In the lab at FentonWorks, Danny was flying as fast as he could while Tucker tracked him with a speed scanner and Khione, floating nearby, took notes on a clipboard. The scanner clocked him at 112 mph.

"112 miles per. Lightin' up the speed gun, dude." Tucker said.

Grinning, Danny went intangible, phasing out through the wall and back in through the ceiling then reappearing.

"Danny?" Tucker said.

Khione smirked, and made a note on the clipboard. "Intangibility, check."

Danny went invisible, and Tucker looked around for him, but Khione could see him, and winked.

Danny dove down toward them, still invisible.

"Invisibility, check." Tucker flinched as Danny overshadowed him.

Danny overshadowed Tucker. "Hi, I'm Tucker! Don't let the PDA, glasses, and lack of muscles fool you. I'm a stud."

Tucker glowed green as Danny left him. "I hate when you do that."

"Ok, hotshot. Let's ramp it up." Khione said.

She clicked a button on a remote, making several rings popped down from the ceilings and dartguns came out of the walls. Danny flipped through the rings then dodged the darts easily. Two board ghosts popped up from the counter and he zapped them with ecto blasts. He skipped a popup board of Jazz, then hit a third ghost one. Then he zapped the Jazz one behind his back. Metal barriers popped out of the floor, and he coasts through them intangibly. Going tangible again, he gave his friends a thumbs up and landed on his feet, bowing theatrically.

Khione and Danny transformed back.

"That was great Danny." Kurai said. "After all that training your finally ready."

"You mean we're ready." Danny said. "I can't do this without you guys. We're gonna beat down this big bad Ghost King together!"

"For sure dude," Tucker said. "You can count on us!"

"We're on your side!" Kurai confirmed.


	8. Battle Cry

"Dude, are you okay?" Tucker asked. Danny didn't look happy or well rested at all. "Sorry, standard question. Late night?"

"Of course it was a late night! Every ghost—IS LOOSE!" As he finished saying this, an Ectopus came in, laughed, and stole his lunch. Danny now had bags under his eyes. "Not to mention I couldn't sleep because my arch-enemy was in the guest room next to me."

"Oh so he's your arch-enemy now?" Kurai asked.

"He hits on my mom, woke the ghost king, and marked you for death with that Ring of Rage, so yeah." Danny snapped.

"You might wanna...bag lunch it outside. This isn't exactly the safest place for you right now." Kurai continued.

"What makes you say that?" Danny asked.

Dash and Kwan are what made her say that. They come up behind Danny.

"Hey Fenturd, no teachers around to protect you, no nerds around to hide you." Dash pointed out.

Tucker looked angry.

"Hey! I resent that! I'm plenty nerd!" Tucker said.

Dash shoved Tucker's lunch into his face.

"Dash, take a hike, will ya? I'm way too tired to put up with you. Besides, shouldn't you be failing a test, kicking a puppy or beating up somebody weaker than you now?" Danny said.

"Come to think of it, yeah!" Dash exclaimed.

Of course, this "somebody weaker than him" (in the sense of muscle) was Danny.

Dash tried to punch him (in slow motion), but Danny turned his chin intangible at the last second. Dash's hand merely grazed the air. He looked at it in astonishment- both Dash and Danny.

Danny, in an attempt of distraction, 'discreetly' fired ectoplasm from his finger and melted the bottoms of Dash's shoes. He attempted to punch Danny, but could not move. He began to lose his balance. Kurai accidentally-on purpose dropped her lunch and kicked it over to Dash, who fell in it.

All the other kids started cheering. Danny smiled at Kurai.

"Sweet!" Kurai said.

"Is it? I know Dash is a jerk, but what if he saw something?" Tucker said.

"He's not gonna see something." Danny said angrily. "Besides, I'm tired of getting kicked around all the time. Maybe it's time I do a little kicking back!"

Kurai and Tucker looked worried.

Xxx

At FentonWorks, Jack, Vlad and Maddie were working on the Battlesuit.

"Vladdy, my man!" Jack was fixing the top part of the Fenton Battlesuit. "Could you hand me that watchermajigit?"

Vlad, who was loitering by a table in the lab, grabbed the 'watchermajigit' and walked over to Jack with it.

"Here you go, old chum." Vlad stood up and leaned against the suit. "Any idea when this suit might be finished?"

Jack slid out from underneath the suit. He was working on it as if it were a car.

"Quit pushing me, V-man, I'm working on it as fast as I can!" Jack said.

A loud neighing was heard coming from the Fenton Portal. Vlad looked worried.

"Can we...pick it up a little bit?" Vlad said.

Maddie was Running down the stairs. "What was that?"

"Could be me." Jack slid out again and jumped up. "I made huevos rancheros for breakfast!"

The neighing was heard from the portal again. The portal burst open, ending a part of the door flying right into Jack.

"Jack. Look out. The door." Vlad said, a few seconds too late.

In the portal, The intruder was revealed to be the Fright Knight.

"Go, and find the Princess! Get the King's Ring." Fright Knight said.

He held out his sword. Behind him, the Skeleton Armies marched- or ran, rather- out of the Ghost Zone and ran around the room, going intangible and flying out when they reached the wall.

"Jack, we have to shut the portal!" Maddie said.

Jack was Still stuck under the door. "Yeah, I'll get right on that." Maddie ran over to a switch that supposedly closed the portal, but was grabbed by the Fright Knight. She was hoisted onto his horse. "Hey!" He threw the portal door off himself.

"LET GO OF THE WOMAN I LOVE!" Jack and Vlad shouted.

Jack threw a surprised look at Vlad.

"Like a dear friend." Vlad said. Vlad looked at the Battlesuit. "Is any part of that suit operational?"

"Well, the pants part, but it's not calibrated yet. Using the suit could kill you." Jack said.

"Well then, maybe you should try it first. It is your battlesuit!" Vlad said.

The Fright Knight fired a beam from his sword at them. Jack slammed Vlad into the wall to save him from the blast with a 'Hut!'.

"That it is, V-man. It's time to kick a little butt." Jack _got off Vlad and got into the pants. "_And these are just the pants to kick it in! Neural receptors engage..."

Jack pressed a button, engaging the neural receptors. The Neural Receptors were snakelike metals that attach to the spinal cord and arms, allowing the person in the suit to control the suit with body movements. The neural receptors attached to Jack. Once they had engaged, Jack jumped in full view of the Fright Knight. The Fright Knight's horse neighed again. The Fright Knight attempted to fire beams at Jack, but he simply dodged them. He jumped up and kicked the Fright Knight's arm repeatedly, freeing Maddie. He then ran up and did a SUPER-KICK!

"The kick is up-" Jack SUPER-KICKed the Fright Knight and his horse right out of the house and over the roof of a building. "AND IT'S GONE!" Back in the lab, Jack was still in the pants. Vlad and Maddie ran up to him. "Ha ha! Nobody can touch me while I'm wearing the Fenton-" His voice dragged as he felt the suit weakening him. "And the...Ectoskeleton...weakening...me..."

Maddie was horrified.

"Jack!" _Maddie caught him as he was about to fall. "_The suit's draining you like a battery! Vlad, help me get these pants off Jack!"

"Nope, sorry, that's all you." Vlad said.

He walked away. Maddie frowned at him.

Xxx

The city was being overrun by the ghosts that had escaped- the Skeleton Armies. Many of them threw cars into shop windows, slice open fire hydrants, and generally caused a lot of mayhem. People ran screaming in panic as the Skeletons chased them. From a building above, Poindexter peeked down.

"Those poor humans." Poindexter _turned around. "_They're being overrun by ghost bullies!"

Around him was a plethora of ghosts- Ember, Box Ghost, Skulker, and Lunch Lady, to be precise.

"Oh, who cares about them? That is the Ghost King's crew. He's on his way here!" Ember said.

"Which means we have to camouflage ourselves. And you hear that?" Skulker watched as crowds flew the city. "That's confusion and panic. Which means it's the perfect time to find our hiding place."

All the other ghosts smiled evilly.


	9. King and Princess

At the Nasty Burger, The Skeleton Armies were patrolling outside. Inside, a completely calm employee was flippin' patties. That is, he was flipping, until the patties flew into the air and formed the Lunch Lady Meat Monster. She roared.

"Lunch, anybody?" Lunch Lady said in a calm voice.

The employee screamed.

At the local Box Store, a couple ran in, looking terrified.

"We need boxes, and lots of 'em!" Man said.

The Box Ghost flew in through the ceiling. "Never!"

The couple hugged each other, screaming.

At the Guitar Palace, Ember was standing at the counter.

"Hey, kids." Ember was standing on a counter in front of a small crowd. "Here's a little ditty I like to call: GET OUT OF MY NEW HOME!"

Ember played a power chord, smashing the windows. All the people ran out of the windows.

"She rocks!" A running guy said.

At the Hunting Goods, Skulker was inside, weapons drawn.

"Away, humans! This is Skulker's lair now!" Skulker said.

He retracted his weapons and sat on a camp chair. The guys in the store (fat men in camp gear) screamed and ran. Poindexter came up through the floor as they run, intangible.

"This is not on the square, Skulker." Poindexter became tangible and flew over to Skulker. "We're pushing these people from their homes. We're no better than the Ghost King."

"No one lives here, it's a store." Skulker said.

He took out an arrow shooting thing and shot it. Dozens of arrows came out and they pinned Poindexter to the wall.

"This seems oddly familiar." Poindexter said.

At Casper High, the Skeleton Armies were closing in on it.

"Kurai, please, tell Tucker he's nuts." Danny said.

"I don't feel like I'm nuts." Tucker said.

"And I don't think he is either." Kurai said. "We've got to do something about this before the Ghost King shows up."

"Pfft. I can handle it." Danny said.

His ghost sense went off. Kurai's went off as well. Her ghost sense was steam coming from ears.

"Woah! I gotta jet!" Danny ran off- and right into Dash. He grabbed Danny by the collar. "Dash!" Danny noticed the Skeleton Armies outside the school. "Uh, look, this is really bad timing, can we reschedule?"

"Don't think so, runt. Unless you think you can MAKE ME!" Dash said.

Danny's eyes glowed green with anger. The next thing we know, Dash was slamming himself against the lockers, yelling. He fell to the ground, exhausted. Danny- who was overshadowing him- flew out of Dash's body and into a nearby hall. He walked out of the hall, completely human. Kurai and Tucker stared at him.

"And... There's more where that came from, Baxter! So... Watch it!" Danny said.

He quickly ran around the corner, just in time to see Plasmius at the end of it. How lucky.

"It feels good to use your powers on your enemies, doesn't it, Daniel?" Plasmius said.

Angry, Danny transformed into Danny Phantom. He fired an ectoplasmic blast at Plasmius, knocking him through the wall.

"Actually, yeah, it does." Danny Phantom said.

He flew off after him.

xxx

A beep came from Tucker's PDA. It sounded like news media.

There was Action News on Tuck's PDA. It showed Tiffany Snow, the news-lady, with a screen by her with a ghost on it and the letters 'GEBS'- Ghost Emergency Broadcasting System.

"This is Tiffany Snow, with Action News." Tiffany said. "And this is the Ghost Emergency Broadcasting System." The screen changed to view the Skeleton Armies. "Amity Park is in the midst of a massive ghost attack. And now, here's Lance Thunder with the Ghost Weather!"

As she said that, the screen showed a Skeleton overturning a car. Tucker and Kurai were now watching the PDA.

"As you can see-" Lance Thunder, a blond man who was a weatherman before the whole ghost thing started, was standing in front of another screen with little ghost pictures on it. "We have random ghost activities in restaurants, malls, and this box store." The screen behind him changed to show the Box Store.

xxx

In FentonWorks Lab, the same broadcast was playing.

The screen behind Lance showed the Skeleton armies marching. "If you look to the west, you can see a huge wave of ghost skeletons heading from the center of town-Towards Casper High."

Jack was still weak, but now out of the pants. "We have to...have to..."

Maddie put a hand on his shoulder. "Jack, you're still wiped out from the Fenton Pants. I'll get Danny and Jazz."

She ran off. Jack was clutching his head.

"That...works too." Jack said.

The broadcast was still playing.

"All parents are advised to immediately pick up their children and RUN!" Lance shouted. "RUN LIKE THE WIND! " The Skeleton Armies attacked Lance. "Not the hair! NOT THE HAIR!"

Xxx

On the Casper High Ravens football field. Plasmius was standing there dramatically. Danny Phantom touched down opposite him. Danny tried to fly up- but was stopped by Plasmius through choking. He lowered him down to the field.

"Calm down, Daniel! I didn't come here to fight you, I have other things to worry about!" Plasmius said.

He threw Danny to the ground. A horse neighed, signaling the arrival of the Fright Knight and his posse, the Skeleton Armies. The Fright Knight, attempting to hit Plasmius, chopped a wing off one of the football post things. Danny touched down, his hand smoking. He fired a blast that hit two Skeletons, and quite a lot more at the Skeletons who overtook him. Just as one Skeleton was about to slice through him, a pink blast of ectoplasm destroyed it. Danny turns around to find that Plasmius was the one that fired it. His hand was smoking.

"You're helping me?" Danny continued to fight off skeletons. "Whaddya want, my mom's cell number?"

Plasmius was Also fighting Skeletons. "No! But really, if you wanted to give me her number..."

He shouldn't have stopped to say that. In the moment that he was defenseless, the Fright Knight grabbed him.

"Where is the Princess?" Fright Knight demanded.

"Princess?" Danny said, confused. "Who?"

"Princess Khione." Fright Knight continued. "The Ghost King's daughter and guardian of his prized Ring of Rage."

Danny looked astounded and betrayed. Was Khione a bad guy?

"We don't know where she is." Vlad said quickly. "But, if you join me, perhaps toge-"

"RA-JE!" Both were knocked away by a sudden blast of silver blue light. The Fright Knight looked up to see Khione, flying down.

"Princess! Surrender and give the King his ring!" Fright Knight demanded.

"Not on your life, Punkin!" Khione snapped. "ARE-TO!"

Spiritual chains bound the Fright Knight and he struggled.

"So she's not a bad guy?" Danny questioned to himself.

"Khione has never been on the Ghost King's side." Plasmius pointed out. "Where have you been?"

Xxx

All the kids' parents drove up. They all had big Jeep-type cars- with the exception of the Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle, of course. That's an RV.

"Doesn't anybody in this town drive a COMPACT CAR?" Tucker said.

Jack got out of one of the cars and ran over to the kids.

"Where's Danny?"

"He's with Kurai." Tucker said.

"Who's Kurai?" Maddie asked.

xxx

"Are you really a good guy?" Danny asked Khione.

To protect his two pawns, Plasmius duplicated himself to create a kind of shield. The duplicates fired pink blasts at the Skeletons, sending them back to whence they came. They then morphed back into one Plasmius.

Fright Knight sent an attack at Danny, and Khione countered with one of her runic attacks.

"Uhh...Thanks?" Danny said.

"You're welcome." Khione said, and created a Lotis Barrier to protect them. "Look, I know this is going to be hard to believe-" Behind them, Plasmius was tackled by the Fright Knight. "But that guy is the problem right now, and I could really use your help."

The Fright Knight and Plasmius were knocked to the ground. Fright Knight stood up, brandishing his sword.

"I still don't trust you," Danny said. "You have too many secrets."

"You don't have to trust me." Khione extended her hand to him. "Just...fight with me!"

Danny thought about it for a second, and then the two shook hands. Khione smiled triumphantly. She flew off, Danny close behind. Danny fireD a blast at the Fright Knight. Khione punched him in the face, and Plasmius got up and fired as well. The Fright Knight was knocked to the ground, but he was not defeated- not yet. He began getting up.

"Fool! All I wanted to do was seize the Ring and return to Pariah's Keep!" Fright Knight shouted angrily. Danny, Plasmius and Khione grimaced. "But now, you give me no choice." Fright Knight was now fully up. "By the authority vested in me by my Lord and Leige-"

He held up his sword, which seemed to have burst into flame. He stuck it into the ground. When the ground and sword made contact, a green wave of ectoplasm sweeped through the town. When the wave hit the Skeleton Armies, they froze in their tracks. The Fright Knight stepped away from the sword, which sent a column of ectoplasm into the sky.

"I claim this town now and forever under the banner of Lord Pariah- The King Of All Ghosts!" Fright Knight declared.

Khione gasped. Not part of the plan.

The column reaches a certain point, and then a large ectoplasmic dome closed itself over the town. Danny was horrified by the sight, as was everyone else. The vapors in the ectoplasm came together to form an image-Lord Pariah.

Khione made a choked sound, the ice and fire swirling around her, brighter and brighter...then winking out as she fell from the sky.

"KURAI!" Danny lunged for her and caught her and touched down to the ground clutching her broken body to his chest.


	10. Ghost King

There was a sign that said 'Amity Park- A Nice Place to Live!'. Unfortunately, that nice place to live was now encased in a ectoplasmic dome with no way out.

At Casper High, on the football field all the cool stuff was happening.

"The sword has sunk, your die now cast, The sword removed shall signal fast. Make reappear the Ring thou hast or your next day shall be your last." Fright Knight disappeared in a puff of smoke and bats. Plasmius and Danny guarded the unconscious Kurai from the bats. The Skeleton Armies remained motionless.

Danny and Vlad transformed back and knelt over Kurai's broken body as the parents descended.

"Children of Amity Park!" Out of nowhere, Maddie and Jack sat in the FFGAV. Maddie was driving and speaking through a microphone. "Report to the safe bosom of the Fenton Family Assault Vehicle!"

As the vehicle drove over, it smashed through inert Skeletons.

Maddie and Jack headed over and saw Kurai.

"Uh... She was like that when I got here." Danny said.

The three bent over her.

xxx

At Fenton Works, The Skeleton Armies stood still. A ghost shield covered the house. The news was on again.

"Welcome back to Big Scary Dome Watch." Tiffany Snow said.

Danny, Tucker and Kurai were watching the news in the basement. Tiffany was in front of a screen with the dome and the word 'Domewatch'.

"I'm Tiffany Snow. We are in our fourth hour of captivity" Tiffany continued. The three teens looked worried. "And Amity Park remains cut off from the outside world. With more on that, outside the safety of our studio, is our own Lance Thunder. Lance?"

The screen changed to show Lance and some guy with a large drill. The guy with the drill was to break through the dome.

"Why the heck do I have to do this? I'm a weatherman, for the love uhh..." Lance realized he was on camera and recovered. "Tiffany, despite the odd circumstances, an eerie calm has fallen over Amity Park, emergency teams still having no luck in piercing the dome." There were some shots of the drill guy and his team, then back to Lance. "Wishing he had taken that job in Chicago, this is Lance Thunder, Action News."

Behind the three teens, Vlad and Maddie were working on the Battlesuit, which was actually beginning to look like a suit. Vlad was wearing overalls. He got up and wiped his brow.

"This suit is the only hope we have to punch through that dome." Maddie was _working on something in the dome. "_But I still don't think we'll be able to perfect the neural receptors."

Jack was still worn out from last time, and had a cold water bottle on his head. "Which is why I'll wear the suit. If anyone's gonna beat that ghost back into the Ghost Zone, it's me."

He stood up as he says this. However, the effort weakened him considerably.

"No, Jack, look at you! You're still wiped out from the last time!" Maddie said.

Vlad was putting his suit back on when Danny dropped in.

"It kills ya, doesn't it? How much they love each other?" Danny said.

"I have other things to worry about and so do you." As Vlad said this, Jack attempted to walk away. Vlad stuck out his leg as he walked by, making the big man trip. "And yet, I will always have time for that."

Xxx

Danny, Tucker and Kurai were in his bedroom.

"You feeling any better?" Tucker asked.

"A little. Though I'm surprised you care... You don't like me very much, do you?" Kurai said.

"I don't know you very much," Tucker admitted. "How did you get that ring?"

"So." Danny said. "You do have the Ring."

Kurai nodded. "I guess I have some explaining to do."

Danny and Tucker folded their arms.

"You sure do." Danny said.

"It would be better if we do this in front of all the ghosts." Kurai transformed. "Let's go."

Xxx

At the hunting/sport store, a more-than-obviously cardboard cutout of Skulker was looking at a corner. Danny phased up behind him with Tucker, and Khione was behind him.

"I'd much rather kick your butt, but this works too!" Danny said.

He powered up the Thermos and pulled Skulker in- or at least tried. The beam merely passed through the cutout, which fell over. Danny was so surprised he didn't notice that the real Skulker has just punched him into some camping gear until he did it. Khione caught Tucker just in time.

"Did you actually think you could sneak upon me?" Skulker said. "I don't care if you are the Savior."

"Enough fooling around, Skulker." Khione said authoritatively. "It's time."

"Of course, Princess." Skulker said, grudgingly.

Surrounding them were other ghosts. Poindexter was still riding the Dragon Ghost, and with him were Technus, Ember, Walker, Klemper, and Bullet, aka 'that guy who works for Walker from Public Enemies.'

"Please, tell me what's going on! Let me help you guys!" Danny said.

Meanwhile Tucker was inputting all the information on all the ghosts into his PDA.

Everyone from before, plus the Box and Lunch Lady Ghosts, sat around a fake electric plug-in fire listening to Skulker tell a not-so-fake campfire story.

"It was many years ago. Before you. Before me. Before most of us. His name was Pariah Dark." Skulker said. "And he ruled the Ghost Zone. He was a ghost of such power and magnitude, only he could control the entities contained within the Crown of Fire and the Ring of Rage. When wearing both- he could do anything.

"Pariah had a daughter, Khione, the Ghost of Fire and Ice. She had created the Crown of Fire and Ring of Rage for her father, and she alone could take the power away. But Khione was very loyal and so on the throne the King remained, for centuries.

"Until one day for no particular reason, Khione betrayed her father and led a rebellion. She took the Ring of Rage and Crown of Fire from her father, rendering him weakened and vulnerable. She then led a group of powerful ancient ghosts banded together in a last ditch effort to defeat the King. They locked him within the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep. Khione elected herself the Guardian of his Slumber, and tied her consciousness to the Ring of Rage, so that if the King was disturbed, she would awaken in the Far Frozen, and stop him once more."

"But that doesn't make any sense." Tucker said. "Khione had everything. Why did she—" he turned to Khione. "—why did you betray your father?"

Khione sighed. "Because Khione went to battle with a powerful priestess called Midoriko. She was what Ghost Hunters are today. She was strong, and the battle lasted three days with the two women in dead lock. Finally, in the end, the two invoked the power of Death and Life at the same time. They were both mummified on impact, and what sprang forth from the ashes was Kurai Hikari—the world's very first hybrid: half-human, half-ghost."

Everyone was shocked; even Skulker looked surprised.

"I have never heard that story." Skulker admitted.

"No one outside the Far Frozen knows the truth." Khione said. "After I transformed, my frozen heart was thawed. I cared about my people, the Ghost Zone, and I decided I wanted to fight for their freedom. So I found a teacher who helped me start the rebellion. And now we have to band together again."

"What do you expect us to do?" Ember said. "He's only been freed for a day and he's already destroyed our homes."

"And that's without the Ring. We can't let him get it! But I'm gonna need all of you to help me put the Ghost King to sleep." Danny said, hoping for help from the ghosts. "I'll need you to battle against all odds, Face untold danger, doom, and destruction, with no guarantee of ever coming back. WHO'S WITH ME?"

The ghosts paused for a second, pondering, then laughed and floated away. Only Danny, Khione, and Tucker remained.

"You should probably take that as a 'no'." Tucker said.


	11. Surrender

Fenton Works was covered by the Ghost Shield. The city was still in its dome. Inside the shield, Vlad was casually leaning against the Specter Speeder, which was parked in the street. Danny, in human form, walked out of the house and up to Vlad.

"You wanted to talk to me?" Vlad said casually.

"You're putting innocent people in danger. It stops. Now." Danny said sternly.

Vlad gave him a smug look. He wasn't really taking this seriously.

"Really?" Vlad laughed a little. "You know what I'm up to? Your tiny teen mind has pieced together the rest of my plot?"

"That you stole the Ring, woke the Ghost King, gave it to Kurai to hide it and now you're waiting for your chance to steal it back?" Danny said.

"That's pretty good. It's almost as though I barely consider you a threat." Vlad said.

Danny groaned. His eyes glowed green.

Vlad shook in mock fear. "Oh, there's that temper of yours again. What ARE you going to do?" He leaned in dangerously close. "What if you family sees us?"

Danny fired ectoplasm from his finger, taking out a streetlight. It was completely dark.

"Oh, sugar cookie." Vlad said.

Danny fired some more ectoplasm, the glow lighting up his face. The blast hit Vlad, knocking him out of the Shield. Danny ran out after him, transforming as he left. Vlad got up, only to be kicked by Danny. He crashed into a billboard.

"Sneak attack, very good, Daniel." Vlad transformed, and flew away from the billboard. "You're getting more like me with every battle."

"I AM NOTHING LIKE YOU!" Danny shouted.

Danny flew up and rammed Plasmius. They landed on the Casper High football field, coincidentally.

"Oh, you're not? Using your powers to get back at people you don't like?" Plasmius stood up. "Throwing the first punch? You're more like me than you know."

He hit Danny across the field. He landed near the Soul Shredder.

"Oh yeah?" Danny stood up. He looked angry. "Well, if that's the case, then instead of asking you to give the ring back, I'll make you!"

He put his hand on the handle. Plasmius flew over.

"Daniel, NO! The sword is a signal!" Plasmius said.

"A signal?" Danny pulled the sword out of the ground. "A signal of what?"

The ground began shaking. The dome above their heads began to crack. Pieces of it fell near people, who ran screaming. Danny and Plasmius turned intangible to avoid them. The students still waiting on the lawn-and Danny and Plasmius- watched as the dome crumbles away- revealing a terrifying sight. Not only had the dome trapped the town, it had transported it into the Ghost Zone! The Skeleton Armies, inert up till now, sprang to...afterlife and marched down the streets. The Soul Shredder shook in Danny's hands, and then flew out of them into the Fright Knight's. The Knight had brought an even more unwelcome visitor- Pariah Dark himself, in all his creepy Scottish-Viking-thing glory.

"Of surrender!" Pariah Dark said.

Danny and Plasmius were frozen in their tracks. Taking advantage of this, Pariah fired red ectoplasm at them, reverting them back to their human forms. They collapsed, unconscious. He loomed over them, clutched them into his fist...

Nearby was a public TV screen with the words 'Amityvison' on it. It showed Jack and Maddie, who looked like they meant business.

"Citizens of Amity Park! This is Jack and Maddie Fenton!" Jack said.

"Hi everybody!" Maddie said.

She waved and smiled. She was the Fenton Works basement, and her face became serious again.

"Malevolent spirits have pulled our entire town into a dimension known to us humans as- the Ghost Zone." Jack said.

Jazz was working at a computer. I'm launching the Ghost Zone probe now." Jazz pressed a red button. A device flew out of Fenton Works and headed into the unknown fathoms of the Zone. "I'm also increasing the Ghost Shield's radius to protect the city."

Jazz pushed a lever up, which expanded the Shield beyond the Works. As the Shield expanded, it pushed all Skeletons backwards. People ran screaming into the shield. The Skeletons chasing them also crashed into the shield.

"The fact that we are currently in an alternate form of reality would be a lot cooler if it weren't for the fact that we are all in mortal danger." Jack said.

The ghost shield now covered most of the city.

"The Ghost Shield's cranked to capacity, and our probe of the Ghost Zone is operational." Jazz said.

Kurai frowned. She ran, presumably to help Danny, doubled over in pain.

The Skeleton Armies were trying to break through the Shield.

"For your own safety, please run under the Fenton Anti-Ghost Shield where our daughter Jazz will be serving tea and cookies! And boys-" Maddie pulled Jazz onscreen. "She's single!"

Jazz pushed her mother away. "Mom!"

Jack came onscreen. "But more than anything, know this: This is not my fault! I repeat, this is not my fault!"

On the Fenton Works roof, Khione flew out.

Pariah fired ectoplasm at one screen, smashing it. He directed his attention back to the two halfas.

"They're ghosts AND humans, just like my treacherous daughter!" He readied his ectoplasmic blast. "Is there no end to this day's surprises?"

Just as he was about to fire, someone came to ruin his fun.

"Father! Surprise!" Khione blasted him with a blast of cold energy, using her ghost powers for the first time.

"Daughter! Miserable wretch!" Pariah shot a laser at her from his working eye.

Khione put her hand in the air and activated the Ring of Rage, ice and fire swirling around her hand and her entire body.

"The Ring! Give that to the King NOW!" Fright Knight shouted.

He attacked her and cut her with the Soul Shredder. Khione's eyes went vacant and she began to scream.

"DANNY!" Khione yelled as she was seeing his death.

Fright Knight took the Ring of Rage off her finger.

The still-activated Ring's power knocked Khione away from the Fright Knight in a circular swirl and she flew into the Ghost Shield, which shocked her until she transformed back into Kurai and slipped into the shield, passing out.

"This... Is... Not... Over!" Fright Knight said.

As he said this, he attacked the shield with his sword. Pariah loomed over him.

"Actually, my loyal servant, it is!" Pariah Dark said.

Pariah smiled evilly. As it turned out, he was able to retrieve the Ring. He put it on. Having now acquired both items of power, the power rushed to him in a very dramatic scene. There was a white flash... And Pariah Dark reached full power.

During the power up, Danny and Vlad were blasted through the Ghost Shield until they were next to Kurai.

The Fright Knight bowed at the sight of him.

"Come. We have plans to make." Pariah Dark stomped off, with the Fright Knight close behind. Each of his steps were marked by a pool of fire. "For soon this... Human world... Will also be mine!"


	12. Call to War

In Fenton Works, A lot of people were congregated outside, looking on in fear. Jazz stepped outside, bringing cookies. One guy took one.

Danny flew straight into his room. He dropped Kurai into the bed, Vlad on a chair, and then transformed back and collapsed out on the floor, his hand clutching Kurai's hands. He now seemed more beat than before.

Danny was Extremely worn out. "Maybe I'll just rest...for a second."

He fainted. Soon after he did, Vlad woke up. He saw Danny and Kurai, both out cold. And his first thought?

"The Ring!" Vlad looked at Kurai's hand. "It's gone!"

Vlad heard Jack and Maddie coming. He turned invisible as they opened the door.

"Ah, y'see? I told you they were up here! What do the kids call it... Hanging out!" Jack said.

They closed the door. Soon after they did, Danny woke up. He saw Kurai and gasped. Vlad, invisible, phased away through the floor.

xxx

In the basement, Tucker was sitting, sipping tea, next to Jazz.

"I'm getting worried." Vlad phased out behind them. "I haven't seen Danny or Kurai in hours."

"Ah, they're fine." Jack emerged from the steps. "They're up in Danny's room."

Tucker, worried and mistrustful of Kurai, ran upstairs.

Xxx

Tucker burst in Danny's room, much to his surprise.

"Danny!" Tucker said. "You're ok!"

Kurai was still passed out from her bout with the Soul Shredder, and, from the looks of it, having nightmares, as she tossed and turned, eyes moving behind her eyelids, and body trembling, as she whispered Danny's name in a fearful tone every few minutes.

"Whoa. What happened to her?" Tucker asked.

"You name it. Fright Knight, Ghost King, Vlad-" He put his hand on her forehead. "All of my enemies. Everything I thought I could handle, but couldn't."

He removed his hand. Tucker came closer.

"Dude, you can't blame yourself for this. It's not your fault." Tucker said.

Danny's expression changed from worried and guilty to angry.

"Maybe not. But it is my responsibility." Danny said firmly.

As Danny said this, he pulsed with ecto-energy which passed to Kurai and she pulsed as well. After a moment her form calmed, and she slowly woke up.

"You broke the Soul Shredder's hold on me." Kurai said weakly.

"K-Kurai..." Danny said, emotion choking his voice.

Kurai sat up slowly. "It's alright. That battle taught you about something very important; about the one thing you have that my father doesn't, and the reason you are going to win."

"What's that?" Tucker wondered.

"Something worth fighting for." Kurai said firmly. "This town, this world, us, and even the Ghost Zone. We all need Danny Phantom."

Encouraged by her pep talk, Danny stood up and transformed. He grabbed his friends, turned all of them intangible, and phased through the floor into the basement. Down there, many 'authority' figures were gathered, including Maurice Foley, the Mayor, and the police, among others. Also there are Jack and Maddie, standing by some big thing covered in tarp.'

"And while the Ecto-Skeleton can enhance your natural abilities one-hundred fold-" Maddie pulled away the tarp, revealing the finished Ecto-Skeleton. "Using it could be fatal."

"Which is exactly why I'll be using it. Because if the suit's going to be killing anyone, it's gonna be me." Jack said.

Maddie slapped Jack to the ground, taking his place.

"You're already weak from the first time you used the suit. I'll be going in." Maddie said.

Jazz slaps her mother off.

"Forget it, Mom. Danny needs both of you. I'm doing this." Jazz said.

Maurice slapped Jazz off.

"I'll do it!" Maurice said.

He was slapped off. The cycle continued.

"I thought I was going to have to blast everybody with a ghost ray, but this is much more efficient." Danny said.

"What? Danny, no, you can't!" Tucker said.

They landed on solid ground.

"I'm the only one who has a chance to save our lives." Tucker said.

Tucker looked to Kurai for back-up.

"I agree...with Danny." Kurai said. "This might be the only way he can defeat my father."

xxx

Up on the roof, Danny was with the Ectoskeleton. He flew up to the top, took off the glass covering, and transformed back into his human half. He jumped in. The hatch closed behind him. He grabbed the controls.

"Activate neural receptors..." Danny said. The neural receptors came out and snapped onto his spine. Something popped up on a screen- a picture of a battery. "Initiate powerup sequence..."

He pulled back on the controls. The suit began charging. The battery's gauge went from 88% to 90%. He pushed down on what looked like a gas pedal Within time, he was fully connected with the Battlesuit. The battery continued to fill...

"Yeah, there we go." Danny confirmed. Behind him, Kurai and Tucker opened up the door onto the roof. Danny glanced over. "I can see you over there, you know."

The two pushed the door open wider, then ran over to him.

"Danny, let me go with you." Kurai said.

"Absolutely not. He will kill you." Danny said.

"Your mom used the word 'fatal'." Tucker said.

"C'mon, guys. You didn't think it was always going to be as easy as shoving the Box Ghost into the Fenton Thermos, did you? I'll be back." Danny said.

They both looked really helpless now.

"Guys, I'll be back." Danny said.

They looked up at him. Danny bent down to Kurai.

"Please don't follow me." Danny said softly.

Kurai looked up at him. "Danny...I-I..."

Danny put a massive hand on her head. "I-I know. Me too."

A winds blew at Kurai, cutting her off. The three lookEd up. The red clouds above them formed together to make Pariah's ugly face.

"Humans! Hear my decree!" Pariah said.

"Well, that's my cue." Danny said. "Tuck, I'll need you to drop the Ghost Shield on my way out, okay?"

"Okay. Be careful, dude." Tucker said.

He ran off, but Kurai stayed. She took what might be one last look a Danny. He smiled at her. Satisfied, she ran off, however unwillingly.

Inside the suit, Danny transformed. The entire suit was affected by the transformation-it goes silver and black, with the emblem on the front. Kurai gave him the thumbs-up, looking at him with that face again. Danny took off, going faster that he could before, blowing his friends back. His ghost trail was blue instead of green.

A crowd of citizens below cheered.

"Go get 'im, Inviso-Bill!" Paulina said.

"It's not Inviso-Bill! It's Phantom! DANNY PHANTOM!" Danny declared.

As he flew close to the Ghost Shield, Tuck used the PDA to temporarily knock it out. Danny flew through. He was now out of the safety of his town, ready to kick some Pariah buttock. As he flew out, he looked back on the town sadly. But he couldn't look for long.


	13. All For One

At Pariah's Keep, there were ten...no, twenty...no, fifty...one hundred...one thousand...five thousand, maybe, Skeletons blocking the way to the Keep. They looked armed and ready. The ones closest to the Keep were riding skeletal dragons. Together, they looked like more than a match for Danny. But did he give up? Nope!

"Maybe if I tried to pick these guys off one at a time..." Danny said.

The finger of the battlesuit opened up, pushing out a tiny blue ectoplasmic ball. It landed in front of some ghosts, then explodes, sending up a VERY COOL blast, getting rid of many Skeletons. They looked miffed now.

"Ha ha! One hundred fold, huh?" Danny said. "THAT doesn't reek!"

Danny, happy with his newfound power, formed a full-sized blast on his hand and fired it, making all the little skeletons fly up in the air...hee hee. However, the effort weakened him considerably. His battery was down to 98%, but went right back up.

"Whoa. Okay. Gotta be smart about how much of my own power I use at once." Danny said.

He looked down. Some Skeletons were preparing to shoot arrows at him. He put up a blue ghost shield (also very cool looking) to deflect the arrows.

"STILL NOT REEKING!" Danny said gleefully.

He fired more blasts at the Skeletons. Finally, as he landed on the land, and bunch of Skeletons tackled him, forming a very large pile. But powers could solve this too: With effort, he made all the Skeletons on top of him explode. He was weakened even more, however. Before the Skeletons could take him again, an anonymous ectoblast shot down, annihilating some of the Skeletons. It came from the Specter Speeder, driven by Kurai and Tucker.

"As a Princess, there's no way I'm gonna let you fight alone!" Kurai declared.

Danny was horrified to see them. "Get out of here, guys! It's too dangerous for you to be here!"

"We're not staying. We're just making a delivery" Tucker said.

Special Delivery for Danny Phantom: Every ghost he knows, and a few he doesn't! They came out of the bottom of the Speeder led by Khione. Tucker then flew away from the scene, not to come back for a while.

"How did they cram all of you into the Specter Speeder?" Danny wondered.

"Hey! Ever been inside your stupid Thermos? Compared to that, it was the Taj Mahal in there!" Ember said.

"Less talking, more FIGHTING!" Skulker said.

"For the Ghost Zone!" Ember shouted.

"For the Princess!" Skulker shouted.

"For the Savior!" All of them cried. "For DANNY PHANTOM!"

"TO WAR!"


	14. Savior

Khione lunged forward, shouting rune after rune and obliterating scores of skeletons, her body lighting up like a Christmas tree.

"Eat Fire and Ice Bone Breath!" Khione shouted.

Weapons popped up from every conceivable place on Skulker's body.

The Box Ghost popped up.

"Beware! For my place of employment has given me a new weapon!" Box Ghost held up a relatively harmless piece of bubble wrap. "The Bubble Wrap- OF DEATH!"

Klemper used his ice breath on some of the Skeletons, freezing them. The Box Ghost wrapped them in his Bubble Wrap (OF DEATH!), and Klemper pushed them off the land.

"Now will you be my friend?" Klemper asked.

"NEVER!" Box Ghost said.

The Dragon Ghost, ridden by Poindexter, spewed flame at the skeletons. Ember took out a skeletal dragon with a power chord. She missed the next one, which was smashed by Skulker a second later anyway. He turned around to face Danny and Ember.

"Now, go! Defeat him! So I will be free to hunt you another day!" Skulker said.

"Guy really knows how to motivate ya." Danny said sarcastically.

"Go, Danny." Khione kissed the Battlesuit, and Danny blushed.

xxx

Danny flew into the Keep. He reached the doors to the throne room. "Well, this is it." He blew the doors open. Standing right there was Pariah Dark, in all his glory. Danny groaned angrily.

"A little ragged round the edges, eh, child?" Pariah said.

"Whaddya say..." Danny flew closer. "We ditch the snappy patter and get right to the part where I kick your butt!"

"Very well, I accept your challenge!" Pariah said.

He flew towards Danny. He put up a shield to stop him. His power was now at 40%, and his strength was limited. He was now very tired. He fired ectoplasm at Pariah, which knocked him into his throne. He was now weaker than ever. Pariah got up.

"Having that much power, it's a burden, isn't it, child?" Pariah said.

He threw his mace at Danny. He jumped up to dodge it, but it just came back around. It hit him in the back and came back to its owner's hand. Once that was over with, Pariah kicked Danny.

Danny flew into the wall. He got up, sweating.

"The power isn't the burden. The burden is in how I use it. And I've been using it poorly lately." Danny focused very, very hard. After a bit of focusing, for the first time, he was able to generate clones. Say hello to Dannies 2, 3, and 4! Danny now had 25% power. The Dannies then flew at Pariah.

The Dannies hit Pariah with beams from all directions. Angered, Pariah swung his mace at Danny 4, making him disappear One of the Dannies got Pariah in the back, knocking him over. The three remaining Dannies walked up to him.

"Now leave my town ALONE!" The Dannies chorused.

They punched Pariah.

xxx

In Amity Park, Tucker landed the Specter Speeder in front of Fenton Works. He looked up at the sky, which, for one fleeting moment, flickered to a normal sky instead of a Ghost Zone sky.

"Whoa." Tucker said.

Xxx

Danny 3 was hit by a beam, making him disappear.

"Surrender, child! You can't possibly win!" Pariah said.

"I don't have to win." Danny 2 pointed out.

His hands charged. He fired his blasts at the wall, revealing the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep.

"I just have to make sure that you lose!" Danny 2 finished.

Danny 1 flew up and held the Sarcophagus open for Pariah. Pariah was looking a bit scared now! Danny 1 fired a bit of ectoplasm, knocking off the Crown of Fire. Danny 2 caught it.

"No! NO!" Pariah screamed.

Danny sealed the Crown into the top of the Sarcophagus, then flew up and, with extreme difficulty, pushed Pariah into the Sarcophagus. Danny 1 closed it. Danny 2, all worn out, retracted back into Danny 1, who was now just Danny.

A pale hand reached into the Sarcophagus and liberated the Ring of Rage from the King. Khione flew the Ring back to it's place of Sealing and it deactivated and a force field appeared around it.

A whitish-blue oval of light surrounded both the Sarcophagus and Amity Park. The Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep shook violently.. Danny groaned, almost at his limit.

10%...9%...8%...

Pariah still didn't wanna sleep.

7%...6%...5%...

Danny was now sweating from exhaustion. He slumped down. Just as he was about to die and Pariah was about to break loose, unleashing all heck on both worlds, an anonymous black-gloved hand turned the Skeleton Key in the lock, sealing Pariah back in, and Khione caught Danny in her arms.

After Pariah was locked in, the Ghost Zone sky over Amity Park reverted back to a normal sky. The residents cheered. The Skeletons still in town turned brown and crumple to dust.

Back at the Keep, Danny looked over. The black-gloved hand belonged to Vlad Plasmius, who was standing with the Fright Knight and all the other ghosts.

"No! Nooo!" Pariah screamed.

Khione was still cradling Danny, and looked fiercely at Plasmius for an explanation.

"I don't understand..." Danny said.

"What? That I used two 14-year-old pawns to turn a knight, and topple a king?" Danny's eyesight began to waver as he loses consciousness. "It's chess, Daniel. Of course you don't understand, but-but then you never really did."

Danny lost consciousness completely.


	15. Ending and Beginning

"Danny?" Kurai said.

Danny's eyes opened. The first thing he saw was Kurai.

"Danny?" Kurai repeated, worried.

His eyes opened fully.

"Huh, huh...what?" Danny muttered.

Danny looked around. He was in his room, on his bed. Standing around him were his family, Kurai and Tuck. Vlad came out from behind Mr. Gray. Danny was in human form.

"You gave us quite a scare there, little badger." Vlad said.

"Vladdie said he'd found you and your little friend just outside the dump after the town flickered back to reality. He saved your life." Jack said.

"Things might have been weird there for a while, but if Vlad saved your life then I say, 'bygones'." Maddie said.

"And you will always be welcome in our home, V-man. You can stay in Danny's room!" Jack grinned.

Vlad walked over.

"Too bad you lost your Ecto-suit, Jack." Vlad lied through his teeth.

"That's okay, V-man. Those pants made me look fat." Jack chuckled.

Danny tried to get up, which caused him intense pain. Kurai pushed him back down again. She smiled. He smiled a dazed smile back.

Xxx

On the Fenton's large TV screen, Another Tiffany Snow broadcast was on.

"Well, the worst ghost crisis in the history of Amity Park is over." Tiffany said. The screen showed people cleaning up Skeleton Army bones on the street. "Cleanup continues—And a sense of normalcy has returned. And while we may never know exactly what happened-"

The screen showed the Box Store.

The owner of the store looked upset.

"Where's my bubble wrap?"

The screen switched the the Casper High Football Field as Tiffany spoke in the background.

"One thing's for sure. Inviso-Bill-" Dash, who was with the students, gave a thumbs-up. A picture of Danny's ghost form was flashed onscreen. "Or should I say, 'Danny Phantom'-" Danny's pic disappeared, and it was replaced by a pie chart. It showed 'Pro, 64%, Con, 36%. "Has gone from villain to hero in the eyes of many in our town!"

xxx

Danny walked up to Dash, unafraid.

"You've got a lotta nerve just walkin' up to me in broad daylight, Fenton!:" Dash said.

"Actually, I wanted to say... I was sorry. I pulled some pranks on you, and-" _Dash looked kinda surprised. "_Well, with all the weirdness in the last few days...I'm sorta thinkin' that just because I can do something doesn't mean I...should."

Danny held out his hand. "So... Apology accepted?"

Dash smiled evilly.

At the Nasty Burger. Dash was leaning against the door.

"Apology accepted." Dash said.

His 'acceptance of apology' was hanging Danny by his underwear from the flagpole. His underwear tore and he fell, only to be rescued by Khione.

"We need to talk." She said.

Xxx

Inside the Nasty Burger, Kurai, Danny, and Tucker sat together.

"Dude, you have to let it go." Tucker said.

"I can't! What was that all about?" Danny said. "The ghosts are all off rebuilding their homes, but the Ecto-Skeleton is gone! And what about Vlad? Did he make some sort of pact with the Fright Knight? I-I-I-"

Kurai put her hand over his mouth.

"Danny, you beat the big bad guy, and you saved the town. That's enough for one day, dontcha think?" Kurai said. "Now it's time for me to keep my promise."

"What are you talking about?" Danny was confused.

"I promised to turn you back to a human after all this was over." Kurai reminded him.

Danny looked from Kurai to Tucker. "No."

"No?" Tucker and Kurai chorused.

"There are other ghosts out there. A lot of them." Danny said. "And there's Vlad too, he threatens my family even without being a ghost. The world _needs_ Danny Phantom."

Kurai beamed at him, proud of his decision.

"As for you," Danny said, turning to her. "I think it's about time you come clean with us."

"He's right. Crisis averted, now you gotta tell us everything." Tucker said.

Kurai nodded and touched her watch pendant.

"The time has come for me to reveal everything."


	16. Dystopia

**Amity Park, The Future**

The whole world was a horrible dystopia, save for one bright spot, a small, blue domed force-field in the distance. As it generated itself, lightning struck many times.

Inside was a bright, futuristic looking city. There were high-rises and huge man-made canyons within the dome. Surrounding it were many small towers appearing to generate the force field.

A yellow, flying car was passingand swooping around a futuristic building, on it an electronic sign read "Amity Park" in big, white letters.

Three streams of aerial car traffic were going in various directions, with flying cars of varied colors like yellow, orange, Violet, and dark blue.

There was skywalk leading to a tall, white building. People walked to and from the place on the bridge. Flying cars passed by underneath the bridge and far over it near the camera. At the top of the blue force field dome, It generated to the apogee point. Some exceptionally tall buildings were seen coming close to it. Casper High School, identical in all its over-a-century-old glory, save for the many futuristic buildings behind it. A yellow-orange car was parked with its wheels deployed and its door open vertically. Students hung out on the campus. One girl was running with her dog. The car took flight and hovered off to the right. From the top-right of the screen, an older Khione flew in a wide arc.

Khione's blue hair was cut short in a jagged way, as if burned off in some fight. The fur had been burned off her costume as well, but it remained black and blue-silver. She now had a cape as well, though it too was burned at the edges, and around her head was a circlet marking her as the Queen of the Ghost Zone. The same pendant that younger Khione had, completely identical down to the scratches, was hanging around her neck.

Two young children, a blonde girl a small pigtail in the back wearing a pink lycra dress and a young boy with fudgey brown hair wearing a blue jumpsuit and white boots both ran up on the sidewalk behind her, waving.

"Hi Queenie!" The kids said, using a nickname Khione liked better then formal titles.

Khione flew past looking down and smiling. She saluted with two fingers, then looked forward, flying away in a blast of blue fire. At a row of six force-field towers, Khione approached a small balcony on the back of one. She landed on her feet.

Khione opened the panel and placed her finger into the slot.

"Ghost Shield 100% Operational." Khione said, her words transmitted to Vlad Masters via her smart watch.

XXX

Vlad was now an old hermit with a long beard and no ghost powers, heading the defenses for Amity Park and protecting Queenie.

"Good job, Khione. Check the last tower and get ba—"

Xxx

"Vlad?" Khione was alarmed. She tapped the watch, and Dark Danny's face appeared on the screen.

"Hello, Queen Khione." Dark Danny said formally.

"You again." Khione snapped. "You'll never win. My master and I have a plan—"

"You really think it wise to depend on that old man?" Dark Danny taunted. "He will _never_ get involved. Face it. You are on your own. Say yes!"

"NEVER!" Khione shouted.

"Then the blood of Amity Park is on your hands, Queen." Dark Danny growled. "Didn't you promise that you would protect them? One more chance—"

"Shut up! I will never give in!" Khione shut off the watch.

A loud wail sounded outside the dome.

Khione clamps her hands over her ears, wincing. The howl shakes the entire city. We pan across the buildings, seeing people holding their ears and ducking down on a skywalk, windows shattering from the skyscrapers on either side. Kwan was in his flying car, the windshields of cars around him exploding, then his followed suit. Back on Tower 9, Khione was half doubled-over. She gasped as the levels on the tower meter began to drop rapidly, then the generator on top of the tower exploded.

Khione leapt from the balcony as explosions rattled down the tower, the shockwave knocking her forward. Wide-eyed, Khione came to a stop floating in the air to stare at the still-smoking tower.

The ring of shield towers exploded in a domino chain. The shield dissolved at the generator points and sizzled away, leaving the city exposed. Lightening struck, and people screamed and ran in the streets. Emergency bunker entrances with flashing red lights rose out of the streets and people raced inside. Above the milling streets, Khione looked at her watch as it flickered on again.

"You like the new power? I call it my Ghostly Wail." Dark Danny smirked.

Khione was about to respond when she was distracted by a tsssew sound overhead. She looked up to see a blazing purple blast coming at her. The impact knocked her out and, transforming back to Kurai, she fell, coming to a crash-landing in front of the Nasty Burger 2. Bruised, she opened her eyes.

"Fright Knight..." Kurai growled. "You traitor."

Kurai, as an adult, had the same badly-cut hair, and was wearing a red leather jacket, black skinny jeans and a white lace shirt, with what appeared to be a black toolbelt.

"You should know, Queen." Fright Knight said. "That in the Ghost Zone, the most powerful rules all."

Kurai scrambled to her feet and transformed into Khione. The Fright Knight hauled back and threw another purple crystal blast at her. Scowling, she took off just in time the blast vaporizing the Nasty Burger 2.

"Gotta get to Vlad!" Khione muttered, flying at top speed.

Purple explosions erupted around her as she zipped down the street then up a building, the Fright Knight hot on her heels. She arched up through the smoke, then disappeared in a burst of speed toward FentonWorks. The Fright Knight formed another purple blast crystal, this one bigger than he is, and flung it. Khione dodged and it impacted the Ops Center, knocking the array off the top and splitting it open like a dropped watermelon. Khione zipped in through the hole, flying down through the house and down into the lab, where red alarm lights are flashing. Vlad was at a console; looking frightened. Khione ran to him.

"Vlad, the Fright Knight's here. Which means **He** can't be far behind. We must inform my master at once! Surely he will get inv—" Khione said in a rush of panic, cut off by Dark Danny's Ghostly Wail.

"Khione! It's you he wants! Get out of here!" Vlad shouted. "I'll hold him off! I know his weaknesses; after all, they are mine as well..."

Khione reached for her pendant to open a portal.

The red lights shut down, leaving the lab in a green dim, and they both turneD to look at the Fenton Portal. The ground split open, starting at the base of the Portal and zigzagging toward them, green light shining from the fissure, and a dark red-eyed figure bursts up from it. Khione could see him from the back, wearing a white and black jumpsuit with a white cape, green flame blazing around him. He landed on the shattered ground and approached the two on foot. It was recognizably an older Danny, with the DP logo, flaming white hair, green skin, pointed ears, fangs, and a goatee.

"Hello, my beloved Queen Khione." Dark Danny said, taking her hand in his. "I'll ask you one final time; and remember, you can stop all of this destruction if you answer correctly: Will you be my Queen?"

Khione jerked her hand away. "I've told you once, and I'll tell you again: You are nothing more than an abomination of my Danny! I will NEVER be your Queen! You seek to destroy all I seek to protect! I will fight you with every breath in my body!"

"I only exist because you created Danny Phantom on your master's orders all those years ago, Khione." Dark Danny pointed out. "I only gained power off the title of Savior that you gave me. And I only destroy because you continue to reject me! Think of what we could do if you only...rule with me."

There was a heartbeat where all of this sank in. The guilt and sorrow. All that Danny had once been to her; and all Dark Danny had ripped away from her in an attempt to force her to his side.

Finally Khione transformed into Kurai. She grabbed Dark Danny by the chin and forced him to look her in the eyes.

"I always thought you ruled Danny. But...not like this." Kurai finally managed in a broken voice.

"Then this is the end. Of everything!" Dark Danny lifted his voice in a earth-shattering Ghostly Wail.

Xxx

"Now do you understand?" Observant said.

Child Clockwork flew up in his purple hooded cape, Time Staff in hand.

"Due to your meddling, we have this problem." Observant said.

"And would you rather the Ghost King have taken over?" Clockwork shifted to adult form. "I think not. It is well in hand. My Apprentice will—"

"Yes we know all about your Apprentice." Observant snapped wearily. "The Ghost Princess, and in the future Ghost Queen. Well this is all her fault. She created Danny Phantom on your orders and she is the target of the future Dark Danny's evil conquest!"

Clockwork looked at them, tiring of their talk already. He shifted into elder form. "What do you want me to do then?"

"You are the Master of Time, Clockwork. Isn't it obvious?" Observant said.

"To save the future, Danny Phantom must perish." The other Observant said firmly. "And, if necessary, the Ghost Princess as well!"


	17. Ambition

"And so, the time has come for me to tell you everything." Kurai said to Danny and Tucker in front of Casper High. "My true mission is—"

Lancer rushed over. "You three! Get in to the auditorium right away!"

In the auditorium, Mr. Lancer was on stage at a podium, Jazz and Irving were sitting in chairs on either side of him.

"Your future is not carved in stone, people, but it may be carved with a No. 2 pencil!" Lancer held one up.

Out in the auditorium, Danny and Tucker were sitting next to each other, Kurai right behind them with her crossed arms propped on the back of their seats. Danny was sitting up and listening intently, whereas Tucker looked bored out of his mind. Kurai looked worried and preoccupied with her necklace.

"Oh please." Tucker said.

"Quiet, this is important!" Danny said.

Tucker stared at him, nonplussed, then exchanged a look with Kurai, who shrugged.

"As most of you have probably forgotten, you will be taking the Career Aptitude Test" Lancer said as the letters C.A.T. and the words spelled out on the projector screen behind him as he spoke. "on Saturday." Lancer spoke Brightly. "Do well, like Ms. Fenton here..." Lancer gestured to Jazz. "who got -"

"- the highest score in the history of the C.A.T. -" Danny said dully.

An image of two obnoxiously rich people flinging money around clicked onto the screen, followed by a fancy car, a mansion strongly resembling Vlad's, and a yacht.

"Fail, like" Lancer gestured to Irving, who was sleeping with his mouth open and drooling. "Irving "Third Degree" Burns here, who..." Irving woke up with a start. "got the "lowest" score in the history of the C.A.T., and you will be doomed to a career at the Nasty Burger."

An image of the burger joint displayed on the projector.

Irving stood angrily. "Hey! Working at Nasty Burger takes brains, you know! If those 42 Nasty Secret Herbs and Spices in our Nasty Sauce are overheated," Irving Advanced to the edge of the stage. "it could cause and explosion that could take out a whole city block!"

Crickets chirped as the students stared at him, unimpressed.

"Oh, who am I kidding." Irving Slumped off the stage. "My life is over."

Lancer held up the answer booklet. "These aren't just the answers to the test. They're the answers to your future. So study." He held up a briefcase and put the booklet inside, then closed it and handcuffed it to his wrist. "Remember, it's your future. Do you want fries with it?"

Lancer marched offstage, briefcase in hand.

"Dude, you ok? Danny?" Tucker said.

Danny was staring ahead, looking like someone just kicked his puppy.

xxx

Danny was on Clockwork's viewscreen, adult!Clockwork looking at it. He turned away as the Observants addressed him.

"What are you waiting for? It's the perfect chance to take him out!" Observant said.

"That's the problem with you Observants." Clockwork switched to child form. "All you do is observe."

"You know our oath. To watch -" Observant said.

Clockwork got up close to the Observant. "-and never act. Which is why" He switched to his old form. "you bring me in to do your dirty work." He raised his staff and it flashed, the viewscreen turning to Danny studying at his kitchen table. Clockwork was again in his adult form. "He turns evil because he's under pressure" He switched to child form. "for some test? Fine. Then perhaps it's time for a test of my own."


	18. Beware

Danny and Jazz were in the Fenton kitchen. Danny was surrounded by books and working through a C.A.T. sample test. He tapped the paper with his pencil for a moment, then dropped his head into his hands despairingly. Jazz came up behind him, peering over his shoulder with both hands on the back of his chair. None of the bubbles had been filled in. She frowned quizzically. Smiling a little, Danny lowered his hand to mark his first answer as A.

Jazz Lifted a finger warningly. "Ah-"

Danny looked back and she covered her mouth. Frowning and sweating a little, Danny started to mark B

Jazz Raised a finger again, wincing. "Bu-"

Danny lifted his pencil, then dropped his hand.

"Hnnn-" Jazz said.

Danny flung his hands in the air, making Jazz flinch back. "OK! I get it! You're brilliant, I'm stupid, and I'll never be able to get as high a score as you." Danny Looked down at his empty sample answer sheet. "So far I'm not even qualified to scrape the grease off the Nasty Grill." Danny flicked his pencil away.

Jazz was downcast "All I want is for you to succeed, Danny. And doing well on this test can help." Danny propped his head on one hand and glared flatly as she took on a lecturing tone. "There are three things I've learned in life:"

"Study hard, do your best, and -" Danny and Jazz chorused.

"Duck!" Jazz cried.

Danny stared at her, thrown for a loop, then the Booomerang clocked him in the back of the head and landed on the table with a clang

"Ow!" Danny clutched his head, then picked up the boomerang. "A boomerang?"

Jack and Maddie came running in. Still rubbing his head, Danny flung the boomerang off through the living room doorway.

"I call it the Boooooomerang!" Jack gestured spookily. "It locks in on a ghost's unique ectosignature and seeks it out wherever it goes!"

The Booomerang was spinning through the living room, and it whacked Danny in the head again. Maddie caught it, frowning down at the device.

She and Jack looked critically at the boomerang. "Although why it's keyed into Danny is way beyond me."

"What's that, Dan? One of those stupid C.A.T. tests? I failed that and I didn't turn out to be a cat." Jack was pleased with himself.

Jack and Maddie trotted out of the room. Clenching his fits and growling, Danny glared at the sample sheet.

"Oh, I give-" Danny said.

"TIME OUT!" Clockwork's voice came.

Danny froze in the act of sweeping the test and a book off the table, Jazz froze as she began to sneeze, and a blue-white light flared in midair, turning into a clock hand that swept a blue disc of light into being.

Back in her room at her home, Kurai's pendant flashed and and she got up. "Master..."

It disappeared and adult Clockwork appeared in its place with Box Lunch, a small ghost girl in overalls, a beret, and pigtails. She appeared to be asleep or unconscious.

"Ah, good. Parents gone." Clockwork Switched to child form. "He's alone with his sister." He flew in a ring around the frozen Danny and Jazz and returned to Box Lunch. Setting his staff down to float in midair beside him, he pulled a medallion on a ribbon, shaped like a gear with the entwines letters CW in the middle, out of his robe, grinning. He dropped the medallion around Box Lunch's neck and she woke.

"Huh? What? Where am I?" Box Lunch said.

Clockwork Switched to elderly form "Amity Park, before you were born. That boy there" He pointed at Danny and she looked. "is part ghost. My employers believe him to be a threat to the world." Clockwork Changed to adult form. "Could you be a dear and dance a little dance for us?"

Box Lunch stared at him, then glared at Danny.

Clockwork punched the button on top of his staff. "Time in!" He vanished in a swirling ball of light.

The book and sample test landed on the floor. Jazz sneezed.

Danny's ghost sense went off. "Now get out of my room!"

"We're in the kitchen." Jazz Gasped, and saw Box Lunch behind a glaring Danny. "But if that's your attitude, I don't wanna see you - or anything you might do in here in the next several minutes!" Jazz Walked off.

"What's with her?" Danny Turned to look at Box Lunch and flinched. "Gah!" He transformed. "More importantly, what's with "you'"?"

"I am Box Lunch, daughter of the Box Ghost and the Lunch Lady!" Box Lunch declared.

"Um, ew." Danny said.

"And now you will face the test of my box-and-lunch-based doom!" Box Lunch spread her hands, and the cabinets and fridge sprung open. Various boxes and cans of food sprung to her, forming a suit of armor. "And now—" Box Lunch's voice turned sweet. "and you probably know this is coming -BEWARE!"

Danny crouched then sprung up and tackled her right out of the armor, going intangible to throw them both out of FentonWorks.

At Nasty Burger, Lancer, briefcase still cuffed to his wrist, was sitting down at one of the outdoor tables with a burger, fries, and cup of coffee. He looked up as Kurai, examining her pendant, and Tucker approached his table.

"Shouldn't you slackers be studying for the C.A.T.s?" Lancer said.

"I've already studied." Tucker said.

"I'm sure we'll do fine." Kurai said.

"The test answers in this briefcase" Lancer picked it up and pointed at it. "may indicate otherwise. Enjoy your Nasty Burgers while you're still on this side of the counter. Hahahaha!"

Tucker and Kurai looked unimpressed. Lancer's burger began to glow, then smeared him in the face as it went flying off.

"Fast Food Nation!" Lancer said.

All over the restaurant, people gasped as their food levitated off their trays and went zooming out the door. Above the Nasty Burger, it swirled around Box Lunch as she faced off against Danny.

"Prepare to taste defeat!" Box Lunch adopted a sweet voice. "And perhaps a nice side salad with that?"

Danny dropped his face in one hand boredly. "Pass."

"Then feast on my empty calories of doooooom!" Box Lunch was offended.

She flung the mass of fast food at him, but he went intangible and it all flew through him.

"Oh, come on! If you actually are the child of the Box Ghost and the Lunch Lady - ew - then you know how this ends-" Danny said.

She brought both fists down on his head, knocking him out of the air. Falling intangibly through the roof of the Nasty Burger, he landed spread-eagled on a table. The people still inside scream and ran out. Tucker and Kurai looked on. Inside, Danny got up and faced off against Box Lunch, who had followed him in. Behind the counter there were two employees.

"Let's get out of here!" Employees said.

"No! You can't leave!" Irving Put his hands on his hips "As a duly deputized Nastronaut, you took an oath to protect the Nasty Sauce from overheating at all costs!" He pointed to two tall vats. A small dial on the side with a color warning scale had its needle in the green.

"At minimum wage? I don't think so!" Employee said.

The two employees ran out the back door.

Irving shouted out the door after them. "You can kiss Employee of the Month goodbye!"

Danny Flew up over the two vats. "That's right! He said at the assembly if this stuff gets too hot, kaboom!" He looked over at the condiment station, where there was a box of multicolored Nasty Sauce packets. He picked up one.

"Prepare for -" Box Lunch said, and then the Nasty Packet stuck in her beret and she cut off.

"Box Lunch!" Danny sang. Raising one finger, he sent a focused beam at the Nasty Packet. "BEWARE!"

The Nasty Sauce packet swelled then exploded, kicking Danny through the wall and blowing the top off the Nasty Burger. Outside, a crowd of people looked on, Lancer in front. He raised his briefcase to shield his face from the flying debris, and a sauce-splattered Danny fell through it, intangible, to land next to Kurai and Tucker. Irving stumbled through the front door. Lancer lowered his briefcase.

"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance! Run!" Lancer shouted.

Screaming, everyone but the trio ran.

Tucker got up. "Danny, who was that ghost you were fighting?"

Danny helped Kurai to her feet. "That was Box Lunch, the daughter of the Box Ghost and the Lunch Lady."

"Yikes!" Kurai and Tucker said.

"Actually, it's more of an ew. I don't know what's going on." Danny Looked down and notices the CW medallion on the ground. "But this medallion might give us a clue—" He suddenly noticed there was something stuck to his back, and peeled it away. It was the C.A.T. answer packet.

Kurai looked at her pendant which was going off again. She realized this was her master's test for Danny and switched off her pendant.

"Oh my gosh. The answers to the C.A.T.s!" Danny cried.

Kurai waited with bated breath. He would make the right choice, right?

Xxx

Danny was in Clockwork's viewscreen. Adult Clockwork and the two Observants were watching.

Clockwork was watching the screen intently and gesturing. "Now watch this. He'll make the right choice. And you'll see, you've got absolutely nothing to-"

Danny held up the packet triumphantly. "Hello, great future!"

"You're not actually thinking of peeking at the answers, are you?" Kurai said, trying to help him.

"Of course I am." Danny reverted to human form. "Aren't you?"

Kurai scowled.

Clockwork's wide-eyed stare dropped into a scowl.

"He's stolen the test answers." Observant said.

"He's clearly going to cheat!" Observant said.

"He has your time medallion." Observant said.

"He has your time medallion." Observant said.

"You said that twice." Clockwork switched to child form.

"Destroy him now, Clockwork." Observant said.

Switching back to adult form, Clockwork stuck his hand in the opening of another gear.

"I know what I'm doing." The gear opening and Clockwork's hand glowed, and the opening resolved to a view of a robotic ghost. "We put the answers to the test in his hands, and he made the wrong decision."

In the viewer, there was the smoking wreck of the Nasty Burger. The viewer zoomed closer, showing an exposed heating element by the Nasty Sauce tanks. The heat meter moved up to yellow. Clockwork punched a button on his staff, making the viewer go to static. It showed a still shot of Danny fighting the robot ghost, then fighting his evil older self. It then showed his family and friends and Mr. Lancer bound and gagged with ectoenergy in the Nasty Burger, which then exploded, and Danny shielding himself against the blast then screaming as he cradled a dead Kurai beside the explosion. Clockwork floated up in front of the viewer.

Clockwork was In old form. "His future is sealed."


	19. Yikes

At Casper High, The trio were walking down the hall.

"So, are you going to return the test answers or not?" Kurai urged.

"I will! I will. I'm just...waiting for the right moment." Danny said.

"Like, maybe, after the test?" Tucker chuckled.

Danny frowned at him.

"Yeah, you're right." Tucker said. As they passed by the teacher's lounge. "You're not thinking about cheating on a test that you're convinced will determine your future."

The door to the teacher's lounge opened, and Lancer looked after them quizzically. Shutting the door again, he went to the sofa and set the briefcase down on the coffee table. He pulled out a key and unlocked the briefcase, and gasps upon finding it empty.

Several Casper High girls were angry as Jazz talked.

"So, it's a choice between Harvard, Yale, and Stanford, and I can't make up my mind!" Jazz said. The girls all turned and walked away, and Jazz's smile dropped. "So...see you after school? No?"

Lancer walked up to Jazz. "Ms. Fenton, may I speak with you after school?"

Jazz looked alarmed.

xxx

In Danny's room, the trio were sitting in a circle on the floor around Clockwork's medallion. Tucker connected a pair of wires from it to his PDA.

"I can't seem to hack into it. It's really hi-tech." Tucker said.

"Yeah, like it's from the future or something." Kurai said ironically.

"Well, speaking of the future, I think it's time I started preparing for mine." Danny Picked up his backpack and stood.

"You mean cheat." Kurai said.

"I didn't say cheat." Danny said.

"You didn't say "not" cheat." Tucker pointed out.

Danny facepalmed. "Guys, come on. I'd love to have spent the last month studying, but I was fighting ghosts! Besides, if you two think this test is so meaningless" Danny pulled out the answer packet and held it up. "why do you even care if I cheat? Why shouldn't I open this up and study the answers, huh?"

Kurai and Tucker looked at each other.

"No answer?" Danny Put the packet on his dresser. "Well that's all the answer I need." He looked down at the packet, hesitating.

"Aren't you going to say something?" Tucker said to Kurai.

"I'm his friend, not his mom." Kurai gave Danny a dirty look.

Danny was still hesitating. Finally he went for the seal and peels it up, but was interrupted by a blue light behind him. Tucker gaped and Kurai gasped. The robot ghost appeared. It was a combination of Skulker and Technus, with Skulker's head in the typical head spot and Technus's face embedded in its chest.

Sam and Tucker sighed in relief. "I mean... Oh no, a ghost."

Danny transformed and leapt at the ghost, who easily backhanded him into the wall. He slid to the floor and glared up.

"Who are you supposed to be?" Danny said.

"I am Skulktech 9.9, the future Ghost World's greatest hunter!" Skulker said.

"With its greatest technovillain as his operating system!" Technus said.

"Skulker and Technus together?" Danny said.

"Is that an ew or a yikes?" Tucker said.

Several claw-ended arms sprung out of Skulktech.

"Definitely a yikes." Danny said.

Danny barely missed getting slammed by a cluster of arms. Going intangible, he snagged Tucker and Kurai and flew the out of the room, then returned through the door. Skulktech knocks him around for a bit, then grabbed him by the neck and held him up.

"Say goodbye," Skulker said.

"Ghost Child!" Technus said.

They lift a claw arm, which began to spin like a scalesaw. Suddenly their gauntlet started beeping the tune to Reveille.

"Someone's hacked into the system? Again?! I thought we fixed that!" Skulker said.

"We did! We must have accidentally synced up with somebody else's PDA!" Technus said.

Skulktech went intangible, and their jets fired off. Dropping Danny, they took off through the ceiling. The door opened and Tucker and Kurai came in.

"Wow. I can still hack into his operating system with my handheld computer. I don't know whether that's exciting or depressing." Tucker said.

Danny leapt to his feet. "Come on, follow me!" Going intangible, he flew up through the ceiling.

Kurai transformed and ghosted Tucker through the ceiling.

The three flew after Skulktech across the evening sky.

xxx

Below, at Casper High, Jazz and Lancer were talking.

"So you're saying Danny stole the C.A.T. test answers? But how?" Jazz said.

"I don't know." Lancer held up the briefcase. "Unless your brother suddenly gained the ability to turn invisible and reach through solid objects?"

Jazz cringed. "But Mr. Lancer, you still have no proof Danny took the test answers."

"Fair enough. He has up until the test to return the answers. But if he cheats, I won't just fail him. I'll destroy his future." Lancer said.

Xxx

Back in the air, Danny was still chasing Skulktech.

"What are you waiting for? Activate the Purpleback Gorilla Override!" Skulker said.

"Don't tell me how to do my job!" Technus said.

Khione zapped them with an ectoblast, and they fell from the sky to crash into the ruin of the Nasty Burger. The heating element was still on, the meter inching higher. They blasted off again.

"Activating Phantom Palm Pummeler!" Technus said.

Their hand opened, sending out a bluewhite ray that caught Danny and knocked him off course, smoking. It hit him again and he reverted to human form, then fell a short way before going back to ghost form.

"You're shorting out my powers?!" Danny said.

"Indeed. Pummeler might not work on you in the future, but we had a feeling it would work on you here." Skulker said.

"The Future?" Danny said.

Technus laughed. "Oh, I love it. You're much less powerful than that other Phantom we have to deal with!"

A third blast hits him, turning him human.

Khione caught him and pulled him to safety.

"What are you talking about?" Danny said.

"You don't have a future, period!" Skulker said hitting him with a claw and zapping him.

"Not anymore!" Technus said.

"I wouldn't bet on that." Tucker said.

Kurai and Tucker came running up, Tucker running the override on his PDA. A red laser hit Skulktech and they shorted out, falling. As they fell they caught themselves on a flagpole.

"Aw poo." Skulktech said.

"Wow, that flagpole thing-" Technus tried.

It snapped and they fell, crashing to land doubled over a lamppost. We saw the CW medallion around their neck.

Danny was still trapped in the cuffed arm "Way to go, guys!"

"Come on, Tucker, let's see if we can get this off!" Kurai said.

Kurai grabbed the cuff and Tucker grabbed Kurai as they tried to wrench it open. Skulktech's medallion fell off and to the ground, and they started to glow bluewhite. The glow raced along the arm, enveloping the trio, and they all vanished.


	20. Revalation

They were inside of Clockwork's Tower. The viewer showed swirls of green, and gears ticked and turned everywhere. The viewer blazeed, and Skulktech and the trio are thrown through it to land on the floor. The cuff sprang open.

"Where are we?" Tucker said.

"I don't know. The Ghost Zone, I think. But...no part of the Ghost Zone I've ever seen." Danny said.

"Master..." Kurai said and fell to one knee before the approaching ghost.

Clockwork towered over her in his adult form, holding his staff and glowing.

"Welcome...my apprentice." Clockwork said. "Introductions? Fine. I am Clockwork, Master of Time. Clockwork switched to child form. "I've been charged with the task of eliminating your future, so that" Clockwork pointed at the viewer. "never happens."

Danny and Tucker stared at Kurai.

"Let me explain." Kurai said. "This is what I've been trying to tell you all. I am from a horrible dystopian future. The mission was to go back to the past and create Danny Phantom to stop this horrible future."

"I know you were sent to give me powers...but what do you mean...' horrible future'?" Danny asked.

"I think she means...that." Tucker pointed at the viewfinder.

Dark Danny was laughing and throwing ectoblasts at screaming people and buildings, then laughing. A label on the screen read FUTURE: 10 YEARS.

"I think I'm seeing your future. And you're kind of a jerk." Tucker said.

On the viewer, tanks, helicopters, and police cars approached Dark Danny. He easily dispatched the lot of them with his Ghostly Wail. Tucker looked aghast.

"Ok, you're "really" a jerk." Tucker said.

Danny pushed Tucker out of the way. "Wow, what is that?" Danny was Excited. "Some kind of ghostly wail? What a cool power!"

Kurai and Tucker stared at him.

Danny backtracked quickly. ...If it weren't being used for evil!

In the viewer, Dark Danny picked up a tank and threw it, then tossed a few more ectoblasts around.

"You've got to be kidding me. Name one evil thing I've done!" Danny protested.

Smiling, adult Clockwork pointed his staff at the viewer. In it, Jazz was pulling the C.A.T. answer packet out of Danny's backpack and gasping, "Danny's a cheater!"

"Bet you can't find two!" Tucker said.

In the viewer, a sobbing Jazz turned into Dark Danny standing triumphantly over the wreckage of a city street, decorated liberally with fallen helicopters.

"How about two thousand." Clockwork switched to child form.

"I don't have to sit here and explain myself to you!" Danny said. "Kurai! I wanna see this future for myself!"

"As you wish." Kurai said reluctantly, and pressed a button on her pendant.

A portal opened. She put two pendants on the boys and they stepped through.

"Then let's see if you have what it takes" Clockwork switched to child form. "to face that future."


	21. Future

They were on a shattered street in future Amity Park. The trio appeared in a flare of bluewhite light, Tucker and Kurai falling to the ground.

Kurai stood up, and she was ten years older. Her hair was cropped unevenly, and her clothing was dystopian leather and covered with weapons.

"Whoa!" Tucker and Danny said together.

"This is what you really look like?" Danny said softly, staring in awe.

"Time is relative, Danny." Kurai said. "As Clockwork's apprentice, I can change my age at will. But since I became half ghost at age sixteen, that's about the age I am in my mind."

"So you're in love with an older woman." Tucker commented.

"Shut it!" Danny elbowed him.

Tucker looked around uneasily. "Man. If this is what we have to look forward to, I'm definitely not taking the C.A.T. test. How do you think this all happened?"

"I don't know. But based on what we just saw, I have a really bad feeling I'm the one responsible." Danny said guiltily.

"Hey," Kurai comforted. "If you can face my Father, your older self should be no problem!"

"Yeah..." Danny said skeptically.

"Why aren't you mentioning what happened to me?" Tucker asked.

"I..." Kurai brought them to a monument, where Tucker, the Fenton Family, and Lancer were memorialized.

"This is my future?" Tucker shouted incredulously. "I'm definately not taking the C.A.T.s!"

"So this was all my fault?" Danny said softly, touching the monument.

A green flash of flame knocked Kurai and Danny offs. Danny looked up to the source to find Dark Danny floating there.

"Actually, that was me. And you, eventually." Danny said.


	22. Retrograde

Dark Danny was frowning down at the trio, who stare back up in shock. Danny got up and helped Kurai to her feet. Dark Danny landed on the street and put his fists on his hips.

Tucker Foley. It's been a while. Ten years, to be accurate. And my beautiful Queen, always an honor." Dark Danny Raised a hand, he swept it down, and Kurai and Tucker were encased, motionless, in green light. "So, to what do I owe this little blast from the past?" His eyes widened as he noticed Tucker's CW medallion. "Clockwork. Meddling again."

He began to raise his arm, but a purple blast from Kurai knocked him into the street. As he stumbled up and waved the smoke away, Kurai, now Khione, was protecting her young friends.

Scowling, Dark Danny got to his feet and charges. Kurai attacked him using her ice powers, but he transforms to a green, blobby form and they passed through him. She fired her plasma powers, but he was too fast and grabs her by both wrists. Meanwhile, Danny bursts forward with a cry. Dark Danny lifted Khione with one hand and punched her with the other, sending her bouncing off the pavement. He followed as she props herself on one hand and one elbow

"This is the moment." Dark Danny reached for her. "The moment when I make you mine."

"KHIONE" Danny lunged forward.

Danny flew and caught Khione around the middle, making them fly intangibly through a few buildings before crash-landing in the street on the other side in a tangle.

"I-I can see why he—I'm obsessed with you." Danny said, embarrassed.

Khione chuckled.

"You are the only reason I continued to refuse him." Khione admitted. "I couldn't bear to be with him; it mocked the memory of the hero I still love."

The two stared at each other; then Danny spoke up. "Wow, an older woman likes me."

Meanwhile, Dark Danny was threatening Tucker.

"You know, if I had an ounce of humanity left in me," Dark Danny walked around Tucker, still trapped in the green light. "this would be a touching little reunion." Tucker looked nervous. "But of course I surrendered my human half a long time ago."

Behind him, Danny rose invisibly from the street, teeth gritted and fists clenched. Dark Danny's ghost sense went off as tendrils of red smoke came from his nostrils.

"Oh, please." Dark Danny said.

He turned and punched an ectoblast at Danny, who returned in kind. Both were knocked down by the other's blast, and the green light trapping Tucker vanished, dropping him to the street as well.

"Tucker! Kurai! Run!" Danny said, panicked.

Kurai grabbed Tucker and they ran.

Dark Danny was back on his feet. "Run? Where are they going to go?"

Turning, he let out a Ghostly Wail. Danny covered his ears. Tucker and Kurai stopped, looking up at the FentonWorks next to them. The brick began to crumble, the Op Center tilting from the top. Kurai and Tucker covered their heads.

"For the record, I blame you." Tucker said to Kurai.

Danny gasps as the FentonWorks fell over on top of Tucker and Kurai, throwing up a cloud of dust. Danny stared in shock for a moment, then cried out as Dark Danny shocked him with energy. He reverted to human form, and Dark Danny spun and throws him toward the wreckage. Getting up on his elbows, he saw the time medallion Tucker had been wearing lying abandoned on the ground.

"Kurai took off his time medallion!" Danny got to his feet. "That returns them to their time period just like Box Lunch and Skulktech!" Danny held up a medallion. "Tucker and Kurai made it out alive!" Danny took hold of his own medallion. "Which means I can-"

Dark Danny seized Danny's arm. "What?" Danny cried out as he lifted him into the air, dropping the other medallion. "Go back for them? They're doomed anyway. And you aren't going anywhere if you can't remove your time medallion." His hand glowed green. Ripping off the time medallion, he made it intangible and stuck it inside Danny's chest. Danny screamed then slumped, unconscious. "In fact, you aren't going anywhere at all."


	23. Falsehood

Back to the current time wreck of Nasty Burger. Jazz drove up in a pink sedan and parked in front of it. She had a personalized plate that read "JAZZ" and a bumper sticker reading "Have you hugged your inner child today?"

Jazz leaned out her car window and looked around. "Danny has to be out here somewhere."

In the alley beside the Nasty Burger, Kurai and Tucker appeared in a flash of light. The still-live heating element and tanks of Nasty Sauce were visible. Tucker was on his knees, still shielding his head, screaming. Kurai crossed her arms and frowns at him. He looked up, surprised.

"You got the medallions off, didn't you." Tucker said.

"Better," Kurai said. "I used mine to send us back. But yes, I took yours off." She gestured to her pendant. "We have to help Danny!"

"Tucker? Kurai?" Jazz called.

They turned and saw her standing at the entrance to the alley.

"You got a second? Let me answer that for you." Jazz approached with one hand pointing. "Yes, you do. I know Danny stole the answers to the C.A.T. That he's going to cheat!"

"Actually, Danny wasn't going to-" Kurai attempted.

Jazz held up a hand. "Kurai, enough. I know more than you think I do. A lot more. So I suggest when you see Danny, you tell him I wanna talk to him. Tonight! Because if I don't, I will be talking to our parents and Mr. Lancer tomorrow." Jazz walked off.

"Lancer knows Danny has the answers..." Kurai said.

"Oh, man, is he in trouble." Tucker said.

"That's gotta be it. Danny cheating is the thing that leads to that horrible future..." Kurai said softly.

"Let me get this straight. Danny gets caught cheating on a test, and we pay for it with our lives? How is that fair?" Tucker said.

Xxx

Danny was lying on the ground, opening his eyes, next to the memorial.

"Mom? Dad?" Danny rolled to his knees. Danny's arms were bound to his torso with glowing green rope. "Gone but not forgotten?" Danny stood. "And where's the Nasty Burger?"

He looked up at the wreck of the Nasty Burger. It had been blown open, and the sign was fallen. Dark Danny walked around the corner of the building.

"Strange how one massive fireball of highly combustible condiments can ruin your whole future." Dark Danny said.

Danny looked down. "The time medallion?"

"Fused inside you. Nice, huh? Intangible and unreachable whether you're ghost or human which means...you can't go back in time." Dark Danny raised his hand and a disc of green swirling light began to form around it.

"It doesn't matter if I go back in time or not. I'll never turn into you! Never!" Danny said.

Behind Dark Danny, the swirling green vortex had grown to his height.

"Of course you will." Dark Danny reverted to human form, but he now appeared to be Danny's age; a perfect clone. "It's only a matter of time." Dark Danny seized Danny by the bonds, he threw him screaming into the portal. "I need you out of my way and out of my hair while I make sure nothing happens to change my past. And luckily, this—" he pulled out one of the time medallions. "—is all I need to make sure of that..."

A ball of bluewhite light engulfed him and he vanished. He reappeared back in the present, in the alleyway next to the Nasty Burger.

"...And to get where and when I need to be." Dark Danny said.

Xxx

In Clockwork's Tower, Clockwork stood before his viewer, which was blank, fiddling with something on his staff. The two Observants appeared behind him and he stopped what he's doing, looking back at them.

"Have you completed the task?" Observant said.

"Everything's fine." Clockwork said crossly, then smiled. "Everything's the way it's supposed to be." He turned to the console of the viewer and pressed a button as he reverted to his elderly form. Disguised Dark Danny appeared on the screen in front of the Nasty Sauce vats. "And there's your boy, back to his time. Safe, sound, and clearly not evil." Onscreen Disguised Dark Danny started walking. "Now. Care to observe the door?"

The two Observants looked at each other, then vanished. Clockwork switched to child form.

Xxx

Back at the Nasty Burger, disguised Dark Danny was looking up at the sign. Even disguised, he retained his adult voice.

"The Nasty Burger. Still standing. For now..." He looked inside where the heating element was warming the Nasty Sauce tank. The temperature indicator was still slowly creeping higher.

"Danny!" Kurai and Tucker said.

Disguised Dark Danny turned away from the hole in the Nasty Burger, surprised. Kurai and Tucker ran, up, grinning. Kurai hugged Dark Danny, then looked at him for a long minute, frowning, then rearranged her face into a smile.

"You made it back!" Kurai said.

Tucker, not noticing Kurai's odd behavior, also hugged Disguised Dark Danny. "Did you beat that evil jerky puspack alternative version of yourself?"

Dark Danny's eyes flashed red for an instant, then returned to blue, and he laughed shortly. He now spoke with Danny's voice. "Always with the quips. In my weaker moment say, sometimes I miss your droll sense of humor."

Kurai and Tucker looked nonplussed. Kurai glared at him.

"I'm sorry?" Tucker said.

Dark Danny realized he messed up. "I'm just kidding! I beat my other self quite easily. Had you guys going there for a second, didn't I?" He put an arm around Kurai. "Especially you, beautiful."

Tucker looked at Dark Danny uncertainly. "...Well...we should probably do what we can to stop the Nasty Burger from blowing up, huh?"

"Already done! Now, who's up for..." Dark Danny looked down and muttered to himself. "What did we used to do together?" Dark Danny spoke out loud. "Playing some games and raging against the machine?"

Tucker smiled enthusiastically, sold. "We're in!"

"Actually, 'Danny,'" Kurai said. "I have some unfinished business."

Before Dark Danny could catch on, Kurai winked at him and waved.

"See ya later, sweetheart!" Kurai grinned and headed off.

Tucker looked over at Dark Danny. "About time, man!"

Dark Danny stared with lovey puppy dog eyes after Kurai.


	24. Evil Puberty

In a green-swirling part of the Ghost Zone scattered with purple doors, Danny was drifting, still bound. He struggled against the ropes.

Danny grunted "Gotta get out of this! I'm going ghost!"

Danny transformed. He struggled some more and found himself still stuck, then finally gave up.

"Well, it was worth a shot." Danny said.

"Well, well, well." Box Ghost said. Danny was floating toward him; Box Ghost was large and muscular now, with a hook for one hand, an eyepatch, and a heart with an arrow through it tattooed on his left arm. "All this time we've been planning how we'd take the fight to you, and here you are. Wrapped up like a present."

"Box Ghost?" Danny said weakly.

"Beware." Box Ghost said ominously.

Raising a hand he threw a bluewhite energy beam at Danny, knocking him into an older and much chubbier Ember.

"Ember?! You look..." Danny attempted.

"Like I went to seed right after you destroyed my vocal cords with that Ghostly Wail of yours?" Ember snarled.

"I was gonna say statuesque, but uh-" Danny tried to save it.

Ember threw a punch chord on her guitar, knocking Danny back. He crashed into Johnny 13, now balding and in a wheelchair.

"Johnny 13?! Ok, whatever happened to you, I swear I had nothing to do with-" Danny tried.

The black blanket over Johnny's legs rose up and resolved into the bad luck shadow. "Been waiting a long time for this, punk."

"Wait!" Danny kept trying to explain. The other ghosts closed in on him. "No! Nooo!"

Ember played another chord and Box Ghost formed a glowing box over his head.

Xxx

In Danny's room, Disguised Dark Danny rose up through the floor and looked around distastefully.

"My old room." Dark Danny Looked in the mirror, touching his face. "And my old face."

Behind him, the door opened. It was Kurai.

"Where is Danny?" Kurai said.

Dark Danny turned. "You really are very clever, my Queen."

"Don't call me that, you cretin." Kurai snapped, transforming into Khione.

"The Danny you know is floating helplessly in the Ghost Zone ten years in the future." Dark Danny said, transforming back.

"He'll escape. He'll beat you!" Khione said, gearing up to attack.

Dark Danny grabbed her wrists and bound them behind her back. "How? Is the answer A, the Fenton Portal? Destroyed it. B, the only remaining portal? The one my idiot cheesehead archenemy has? As soon as I find it, that's going too."

"Oh don't worry." Khione snapped. "Danny will find away. Your destiny is already set, thanks to me and my master!"

Dark Danny continued as though Khione had not spoken. Is it C, _you_? No. You can't stop me from cheating on the C.A.T. and solidifying my future, so it must be D-" Dark Danny threw an ectoblast at her, freezing her with green light. "None of the above!"

He released her and she fell to the ground unconscious. He returned to his human disguise and pulled the answer packet out of his bag, looking at it.

"Well, what do you know! The answer to the first question "is" D." Dark Danny said in his adult voice, and then gave an evil laugh.

Xxx

Kurai woke up in Danny's bed, surprised he'd left her alive. She got up and headed down to the lab.

She had to save Danny.

Kurai snatched the boomerang from the table in the lab. She ran up to the open Fenton Portal. Holding up a folded piece of paper, she spoke to the Booomerang:

"I need you to find Danny." Kurai ripped off her headband and used it to fix the note to the boomerang. "Fourteen-year-old Danny, ten years from now." Kurai hauled back and threw the Booomerang into the Portal.

xxx

The Booomerang flew around in the Ghost Zone, the red homing beacon on it beeping. It flew around for ten years. The boomerang, scorched but still beeping sluggishly, floated past a giant crab/warthog monster. The beacon went green and it nearly got chomped by the monster, but it quickly switched directions.

Danny, still bound, was getting bounced around by cranky ghosts. Ember landed a chord, then Box Ghost beaned him with some energy boxes, Johnny's shadow sent him spinning, Skulktech threatened him with lightning, Kitty socked him with her purse and knocked him into Ember again. She seized him and slammed him into a wall.

"Please! I didn't do all this to you, it wasn't me!" Danny said.

"Oh, stop! You're responsible for the horrible things that happened to your world "and" ours." Skulker said.

"To everyone you've ever come in contact with!" Technus said.

"Your family, your friends," Ember backed away. "and most importantly, us."

"But-I didn't do any of that!" Danny protested.

All of the ghosts powered up to attack.

"Get away. Get away! Get AWAAAAAY!" Danny screamed.

His scream turned into a Ghostly Wail, knocking the other ghosts away and vaporizing his bonds. The effort of the attack made him partially revert to human form, his eyes and hair changing but his suit and glow remaining.

"Whoa." Danny said.

All of the ghosts were floating unconscious, the Shadow half-melted and Skulktech's suit smoking.

"My voice is changing? Great." Danny went back to full ghost mode. "I'm going through evil puberty. Everywhere I turn my stupid future is smacking me in the face!" The Booomerang clocked him in the back of the head. "OW! ...A note?" Danny took the note and throws the boomerang to the side. "Polter-heights, in Future Amity Park? Plasmius? Figures he's involved in this!"

Xxx

At Casper High, Lancer walked down the aisles as students scribbled out their test answers. Disguised Dark Danny looked up as he goes by, then smirked down at his test sheet. He looked at the answer key under his desk, then randomly started filling in correct answers. Tucker looked shocked, and Kurai despondent.

"Danny, don't! If you cheat we'll—" Tucker whispered.

Kurai shushed him.

"Mr. Foley, Mr. Fenton." The trio all looked up. "Is there a problem?"

"Uh..." Dark Danny looked over at Kurai and Tucker, who looked back expectantly, and he snickered. "No problem at all." His eyes went red.

At this point, Kurai had done all she could. It was up to Danny now.


	25. Past Mistakes

In Casper High, the testing room, Lancer was now sitting at the desk at the front of the room, and Disguised Dark Danny was still copying answers from the answer sheet to his test. He looked up at the door and saw Khione frowning at him through the glass. He looked around quickly, then a transparent copy of his adult self peels off and dove into the floor as he scowled back at her. Out in the hall, the copy slipped up behind her and zapped her as she pulled the Fenton Peeler. She screamed then collapsed, unconscious, back in Kurai's form, to the floor. He dragged her offscreen by the ankles.

xxx

Back in the Ghost Zone...

"Well, that's Vlad for ya." Danny was looking at a gigantic purple football. "Subtle as a flying mallet." He pushed the football aside to reveal a swirling portal. He jumped through into a dim cave packed with equipment.

"Come to kick a defenseless old man while he's down?" Old Human Vlad, with a beard, was sitting in the ruins of his mansion, having given up on protecting Amity Park.

"Defenseless? Old?" Danny said.

Danny approached Vlad's large, V-emblazoned chair from behind; he was sitting at a bank of consoles, chemistry glassware to the side. Vlad spun about abruptly. He was still wearing a suit, but it was torn and stained and he was barefoot. His hair and beard had grown long and there were dark rings under his eyes.

"Man. What happened to you?" Danny said.

"I could ask you the very same question, my boy. Although perhaps—" Vlad stood with the aid of a cane. "I should ask what "hasn't" happened to you. Yet."

"If it's any consolation, they went so quickly. They felt no pain." Vlad said.

xxx

As Vlad spoke a newspaper spun out of the darkness, the Amity Park Angle. The headline story read NASTY ACCIDENTS FOR FENTONS AND FRIENDS, with a picture of the crater where the Nasty Burger once stood. The other frontpage stories read THE SOLE SURVIVOR, over a picture of Danny, and "Fentons and Friends", with a photo of all the Fentons with Tucker.

"Unfortunately the same could not be said of you, Daniel."

In the past, A car pulled up in front of Vlad's mansion.

"With nowhere else to go, you came to me-"

Danny stood sadly in the driveway with his luggage.

"-the only person on the planet who could possibly hope to understand your situation."

Vlad put a hand on Danny's shoulder and smiled, but after glancing at him Danny just looked dully down at the photo of the Fentons and his friends in front of the FentonWorks.

"All you wanted was to make the hurt go away."

Vlad's face saddened.

Vlad was wearing a medical apron and facemask, and Danny was unconscious in a large machine, hooked up to a breathing apparatus and a beeping heart monitor.

"I honored your wishes."

Vlad, wearing the Ghost Gauntlets, raised both hands and the Gauntlets glowed purple.

"No more painful human emotions to drag you down."

Razor claws sprang out of the Gauntlets. He stuck both Gauntlets into Danny's torso, closing his eyes and turning his face away, sweating with effort. Finally he pulled out a smoking, transparent form of Danny Phantom, and stared up at it, wide-eyed. Phantom's eyes went wide and he ripped the Gauntlets out, leaving green gashes in his chest and throwing Vlad into the wall, the Gauntlets falling off. He looked up to see a furious Phantom with both fists glowing.

"Sadly, that freed you up to rip the ghost out of me."

Grinning maniacally, Phantom donned the Gauntlets, picked up Vlad by the shirt, and ripped his ghost and human halves apart, flinging the respective sides into opposite walls. Dropping the Gauntlets and going intangible, Phantom flew into Plasmius, who opened blazing green eyes and crackled with energy, then took Phantom's form.

"And when my evil ghost half mixed with yours, and my evil side overwhelmed you..."

Phantom's eyes opened, glowing solid green. He screamed as his face began to crack, skin turning light blue and white hair blazing into fire. Rings of energy rippled out around him. Below, Vlad cowered in terror.

Xxx

"What happened to my human self?" Danny asked.

Vlad closed his eyes and turned away, putting up a staying hand.

"Some things, my boy, are better left unsaid." Vlad said.

"How did Kurai get involved?" Danny asked.

"Your Evil Self made his way to her immediately after transforming." Vlad said. "He proposed to her, wanted to make her his Evil Queen. Khione refused him. He took out the rejection on the world, every day destroying something she loved, and then coming back to propose to her all over again."

"Poor Kurai." Danny said. "I really messed up her life."

"If any good came out of this, it's that ten years without ghost powers—" He picked up a photo of himself with Jack and Maddie in college. "—have given me a chance to see what a fool I'd been."

"Maybe that's all anybody needs...a second chance. You still have those Ghost Gauntlets?" Danny said.

Vlad's eyes went wide.

Xxx

Disguised Dark Danny slapped his C.A.T. answer sheet down on Lancer's desk, smirking challengingly.

"Finished already, Mr. Fenton?" Lancer said flatly.

Dark Danny leaned on the desk. "Is that a "problem"?"

"How should I know? I don't have all the answers." _They faced off over the desk._ "Do you?"

Smirking, Disguised Dark Danny stepped away, tossing one last challenging glance over his shoulder at the door. Sighing, Lancer reached for his cell phone and dialed for FentonWorks. It rang once.

Lancer spoke on the phone. "Mrs. Fenton? It's Mr. Lancer. Could you meet me at the Nasty Burger at say, 5 o'clock?" He looked out the window and saw Danny walking across the school lawn. "And bring Danny."

Xxx

"So you're saying there's a medallion lodged within you, keeping you rooted in this time period?" Vlad pulled on the Gauntlets.

"Yes. And I can't reach it. But I'm guessing if you could reach into me and rip out my humanity - which, by the way, sounds totally gross - you can get the medallion out too!Then I'll pop back to my present like Tucker and Kurai did." Danny said.

Vlad raised the gauntlets. "Or I could just destroy you now and prevent this future. Didn't think of that, did you?"

He hauled back and brought the claws down. Danny screamed and see green light blazed out of Vlad's Lair.


	26. Terrible Loss

Back at the wreck of the Nasty Burger, Mr. Lancer was standing at the door. An engine revved and headlights shone on him. The Fenton RV parked in front of the Nasty Burger, Jack and Maddie up front and Disguised Dark Danny smirking in the back seat.

"Mr. Lancer sounded urgent on the phone. Danny, is something wrong?" Maddie said.

"Not yet." Dark Danny said.

In the wreck of the Nasty Burger, the tanks and the heating element again, and the indicator needle shuddered higher.

"Mr. and Mrs. Fenton, Daniel, this s the Nasty Burger. When people fail, this is where they end up- whether they fail because they don't study, or because they cheat." Mr Lancer held up Danny's test.

Jack and Maddie gasped.

"Danny! Is this true?" Jack asked.

"Did you cheat?" Maddie asked.

"You have to get out of here!" Tucker shouted, coming over. "The Nasty Burger's gonna blow, and we're three feet from it!"

"South Beach Diet, people, what's going on here!" Mr Lancer cried.

Khione landed, facing Dark Danny angrily. "I'll tell you what's going on." Everyone looked over, surprised, and in Disguised Dark Danny's case, angry. "Or better yet, I'll show you." She fired a rune at Dark Danny, peeling away his disguise and revealing his true form. Everyone looked on in shock. "That's not Danny!"

Jack and Maddie went from stunned to angry, and immediately trained weapons on the fallen Dark Danny.

"Where is he? Where's our son?" Jack shouted.

"What have you done to our boy?" Maddie shouted.

Dark Danny laughed and looked up at her. "I **am** your boy!"

"What?!" Maddie said, confused.

Lancer, Khione and Tucker looked on, shocked. Dark Danny sprang into the air, where the clouds were starting to swirl green.

"What kind of parents are you anyway? The world's leading ghost experts, and you couldn't figure out your own son was half ghost!" Dark Danny accused.

Weapons still trained on him, Jack and Maddie stared up at Dark Danny, stunned.

Jack looked at Maddie. "For the record, I blame you."

"Hello? Danny "Fenton"? Danny "Phantom"? Ever notice the similarity?" Dark Danny mocked.

"Liar! Don't move!" Jack cried.

"Actually, nobody's going anywhere. Not until it's time for you to be blown everywhere." Dark Danny threatened.

He flung out a strand of ectoplasm, binding Jack, Maddie, Lancer, and Tucker to a tank, then released five more blobs of it from his fingertips, gagging them. Khione attempts to punch him from behind, but his flesh moves around her fist, leaving a hole in his chest. She gasped and pulled back her arm.

"Nice try, my dear." Dark Danny's chest sprang back to normal. "But me," Dark Danny turned his neck 180 degrees to look at her. "my future" He turned the rest of his body around, "I'm inevitable."

Two copies manifested, surrounding her. He grabbed her by the waist, shocked her, turning her back into Kurai.

"Now I'll ask you one last time: Will you join me and be my Queen?" Dark Danny snarled. "Or do I have to destroy everything?"

"You'll kill them anyway," Kurai spat back.

"You're right." Dark Danny smirked, throwing her to the ground. "It's over, my dear Queen."

"Get your filthy hands off her!" Danny shouted.

Danny collided with Dark Danny, knocking him a couple blocks away.

"Don't worry. I won't turn into that. Ever. I promise." He looked over at Lancer, who was staring back at him. "I guess this sort of explains my periodic absences, huh?"

A rope of ectoenergy suddenly caught him around the waist. Dark Danny reeled him in to seize him by the collar.

"What are you gonna do? Waste me? What happens to you then?" Danny pointed out.

"You don't get it, do you? "I'm still here." I still exist. That means "you" still turn into "me."" Dark Danny countered.

He punched Danny into a lightpost. The backpack fell off and tips over, revealing the Ghost Gauntlets.

"I don't have to waste you." Dark Danny said.

The Nasty Sauce indicator needle went into the red, then the Fentons, Lancer, and Tucker bound to the tank, which was beginning to crack and shudder.

"I just have to run out the clock until your entire life falls apart." Dark Danny said.

Dark Danny dove at Danny, who grabbed the backpack and sinks into the ground. Dark Danny knocked over the lightpost and spun around, looking for him. Behind him, Danny rose out of the street, wearing the Ghost Gauntlets.

"Maybe if you'd remembered more about your family, you'd have remembered the Specter Deflector!" Danny said.

He pulled it out, flying at Dark Danny and snapping the belt around his waist. Immediately the older Danny screamed as he was electrocuted by the anti-ghost device.

"Or the Ghost Gauntlets!" Danny said.

He hauled back and sent Dark Danny crashing through an oil truck with a punch. Dark Danny looked around for a second nervously and then the whole thing went up in a blue blast. In the air, Danny shielded his face. As the explosion subsided to blue flame, he landed and began to walk away. Behind him, a furious Dark Danny emerged from the flame. He ripped off the Specter Deflector, grabbed Danny by the arm with a still-burning hand, and threw him to the ground.

"Your time is up, Danny." Dark Danny copied himself into four, the copies speaking together. "It's been up for 10 years."

They all punched him at once. Danny fell smoking to the ground and Dark Danny's copies reunited.

"What makes you think you can change my past?" Dark Danny said.

Danny got to all fours and glared up. "Because I promised my family!"

Dark Danny _laughed._ "Oh, you are such a child! You "promised"?"

"Yes! I PROMISED!" Danny shouted.

He stood and the word turned to a Ghostly Wail, sending Dark Danny flying and digging up a divot in the street.

"That power, ugh, it's not possible! I don't get that power until ten years from now!" Dark Danny said.

Danny landed. "I guess the future isn't as set in stone as you think it is."

Kurai stumbled up, trying to get Danny's attention.

He did another Ghostly Wail practically in Dark Danny's face, sending him flying again; it broke out windows and blew him through a doorway, then demolished the building on top of him. Completely exhausted, Danny dropped to his knees in human form. A fist rose from the rubble pile, and Danny looked up and gasped. Dark Danny burst from the wreckage, bruised up, flames dying, and uniform ripped.

"Well, that's it, isn't it?" Dark Danny said.

Danny's eyes narrowed. "Time's up!" Danny Opened a Fenton Thermos, he aimed it at Dark Danny and began to suck him in.

"Too weak to escape - and you're too late to save them!" Dark Danny said.

His final act was to reach out to Kurai. "My...Queen..you don't have to—"

Danny capped the thermos then looked over his shoulder. "Oh no."

Kurai stood up, transformed, placed her hand on her pendant.

The heat indicator was now all the way over in the red. the glass over it cracked then shattered. The cracking, leaking tanks hissed with steam. Danny ran toward the Nasty Burger, trying to go ghost, but the ring of light fizzled out.

"I can't go ghost!" He tripped on a rock and fell flat on his front. "Noo!"

Xxx

"Khione," Clockwork said in the past. "You watch the events of space-time. You are a ghost who controls time and space. There are three things you must not do. First, you may not cross time. Second, you can never leave the door you must protect. And third..."

Xxx

He and his loved ones stared at each other for an instant, and then the Nasty Burger blew up. The shockwave sent Danny flying with the dust and rubble; then everything froze.

"TIME OUT!" Khione's hands were on her pendant.

Xxx

"The third thing you must not do: You mustn't stop time. You and the pendant you carry are endowed with the power to move time. But no matter what happens, you must never stop time. If you ever violate that law..."

Xxx

A barrier surrounded Danny's loved ones, and pulled them from the explosion.

Khione's pendant shattered, and she collapsed into Danny's arms.

"I... wanted to help you... To fight with you... Danny Phantom. You're what I longed for. Danny, please...never lose yourself to the darkness...don't let Dark Danny win..." She coughed hard.

A clock hand traces out a bluewhite circle, which resolved into child Clockwork. He looked sadly down at his apprentice.

"She violated the most important taboo..."

Danny looked up at him. "What's going to happen to her?! Don't tell me she's going to—"

Clockwork held up his staff and struck her pendant with it. Blue-silver light erupted from the girl, and she reverted to her human form. The light moved to Danny and rained down on him like snowflakes, leaving edges of silver in his hair, which faded, attaching to his ghost form.

The light flew up into the sky, striking and making a firework shaped like a snowflake, and then vanishing in a swirl of snow and ice.

Kurai breathed again, leaning against Danny, looking comfortable, and alive.

"You saved her? I-I don't understand!" Danny said incredulously.

Clockwork switched to adult form. "The Observants look at time like they're watching a parade, one thing after another passing sequence right in front of them.. He gestured down at the wrecked Nasty Burger. "I see the parade from above, all the twists and turns it might—" Clockwork switched to elderly form. "—or might not take." He winked.

"You knew all this was going to happen. All of it!" Danny looked down at Kurai. "Even this part."

"She is human now." Clockwork revealed. "She will age like you and your friends. She no longer has powers. Can I trust you to look after her?"

"I won't let anything bad ever happen to Kurai." Danny said.

"Everything's the way it's supposed to be. And here we are with you, a fourteen-year-old child, ,risking everything to save the people you care about." Clockwork said. "And the Princess, giving up her power to save the person who caused her so much pain."

Danny smiled at him.

Clockwork pressed the button on his Time Staff. "Time in!"

They were surrounded for a moment by ticking clocks, then reappear in the classroom, where Danny's classmates were taking the C.A.T., frozen in time. Clockwork picked up the answer packet from Danny's desk.

"You've given everyone else a second chance." He switched to child form. "Why not you?" He handed him the packet.

Danny took it and Clockwork vanished. The clock started to tick and everyone started to move. Danny stared at Lancer, standing by his own desk with the packet in his hands, then smiled slightly.

"Mr. Fenton, is there a problem?" Lancer asked.

"Um, actually Mr. Lancer, there is." Danny said.

"I, uh, found this the other day. Outside the Nasty Burger." He slid the answer packet across the desk.

Lancer picked it up. "Hm. The seal is broken."

"Yeah. I know. A-and, I'm sorry. I couldn't stop myself from looking at the answers. But I'm not a cheater! And I never will be!" Danny confessed.

Kurai looked up, and the two of them smiled at each other.

"Well, you'll have a chance to prove that when you take the make-up test next week, now won't you?" Lancer said.

"Really?" Danny said, excitedly.

"You'll have plenty of time to study for your make-up test in detention. But for now..." Lancer said.

He gestured to the door.

Xxx

Danny was sitting on the front steps of Casper High. The door opened and Kurai stepped out.

"So..." Danny said. "I'm sorry."

Kurai looked up. "For what?"

"For what?" Danny echoed, incredulous. "I ruined your life. Your whole life you were tortured by me and then you ended up giving your powers to save my family, and—"

Kurai put a finger to his lips. "I've lived a really long life as a half-ghost. But the time I've spent with you; the real you, has been the best time of all of it. If I had to sacrifice my powers to keep the 'real' Danny around, it was worth it."

Danny stared at her, shocked, and the two leaned close, maybe about to kiss, then stopped as Danny's ghost sense went off.

Sirens sounded. A giant tentacle monster chased a cop car past the school as the couple watched.

"Go." Kurai put her hand on his and they smiled.

Danny Ran and transformed. "Going ghost!" Danny confronted the tentacle monster. "Hey! Giant, green, and gruesome! Guess who's back and better than ever!"

The slime monster made a worried sound. Danny hauled back and punched it, drenching Kurai in ectoslime.

Kurai was dripping with ectoplasm. "This is gonna take some getting used to."

Xxx

Clockwork was watching. As child Clockwork watched, smiling, with the thermos in one hand. The Observants stood with their hands clasped behind him.

"You manipulated the boy! You influenced his choice!" Observant said.

"That's a direct violation of the Protocol of Temporal Displacement! In other words," Observant said.

"You cheated!" Observants said.

"True, I cheated." Clockwork switched to adult form. "But I assure you his choice was his own."

"You realize the boy is your responsibility now." Observant said.

"As is his evil self, now that he exists outside of time." Observant said.

"And the Princess' power, now that it's released into the world." Observant said.

"I know. But then, I know everything." Clockwork said.

Flying past the Observants through a door, he set down the thermos. It blulged out on the sides as though something was bouncing around and punching, then Dark Danny's face printed on the front of the thermos, his laughter echoing.

Xxx

The blue-silver magic flew to a traveling circus, Circus Gothica, and struck a red glowing orb atop a staff.

Freak Show, stroked the staff as it began to glow brightly.

"The Princess is dead." Freak Show said. "I finally have the power I need. Her power. I can control all the ghosts...even half-ghosts...with her power!"

He raised the staff in the air, where it was struck with lightning and glowed brightly. The red light resolved into the image of Danny Phantom.


	27. Mystery

In the 24k Jewelry store, after-hours, in a display case. The jewelry began to glow and float. Danny poked his head in to take a peek.

"And I thought the merchandise is flying off the shelves is just an expression." Danny Came in and fired a couple of ecto-blasts at them.

Four ghosts appeared as they were zapped, two male and two female.

Kurai and Tucker slid in, both clad in anti-ghost weapons.

Kurai stared. "No..."

"Woah! Who are you guys?" Danny said.

One male, a dwarf, jumped on Danny's shoulders and pulled on his mouth then covered his eyes.

"Hey! I'm not a hat person! Especially if the hat is a dwarf!" Danny said.

Kurai shot him, and he fell off.

"Nice shot!" Danny said.

"Danny about these ghosts—"

Dwarf crashed into a case and set off the alarm, Danny tried to leave and ran into the other male, who was much MUCH larger.

"Okay, all things considered, maybe the tiny hat guy was better." Danny said.

Tucker shot the big guy and he fell, but Danny fell into the female, eye-patched, who stretched herself across two columns, making slingshot across the room.

Danny opened his eyes and the other female, a tattooed ghost, revealed herself to be covered in tattoos, which came alive and attack Danny.

Danny powered up and fires and ecto shock wave that blew all the tattoo creatures into the other ghosts.

"You know, it's ghosts like you that give ghosts like me a bad name." Danny said.

"About those ghosts Danny—" Kurai attempted.

Sirens were heard and a police cruiser pulled up in front of the store.

The tattooed ghost collected her tattoos, and she and the other ghosts phased through the ceiling, dropping their jewelry on Danny, which the two officers saw when they bust in.

Kurai pulled Tucker away so they wouldn't get arrested.

"They...are being mind controlled...by my power..." Kurai muttered under her breath, keeping Tucker safe.

"Freeze Inviso-Bill!" Cop said.

"Although it's hard to come up with a worse name than that." Danny phased through the floor, leaving the jewelry on the floor.

"Hey. Want to take this stuff and blame the ghost kid?" Cop said.

Cop sighed. "You're under arrest."

"Awww..." Cop said.


	28. Capture Magic

Kurai woke up in her apartment. She got out of bed and got dressed then went in to the kitchen and made breakfast to the sound of the TV.

She was still a little worried about ghosts being controlled with her powers, but she hadn't had the chance to tell Danny about it.

Just then the door opened and Danny came in.

"Hey Kurai." He said, sitting at her table. "Got that Dumpty Humpty album you asked for. Watcha watching?"

"Morning news." Kurai replied. "It's background noise. Bacon?"

On TV, there was a red spiral shown and Freakshow came on.

"I... am Freakshow, ringmaster of the Circus Gothica..." Freakshow said.

Skeleton was shown juggling skulls.

"...where your nightmares come alive. Circus Gothica...

Gloomy/scary clown with sharp teeth was shown, howling with demented laughter, but while (still) frowning.

"...where the clowns never smile."

Heavily pierced man in an iron mask was shown.

"Circus Gothica. Come and get your freak on... with real freaks. Circus Gothica! Coming to Amity Park. Cross over... to the dark side."

Freakshow wielded a staff with glowing red orb.

Kurai's eyes widened and her mouth opened in a shocked 'o.'

Danny spoke trance-like. "Cross over to the dark side..." Danny's eyes glowed.

Kurai swiveled to stare at Danny. "Oh...no..."

She quickly switched off the TV.

"Danny come on..."

"Cross over to the dark side..." Danny intoned.

Kurai hauled off and slapped him.

"What the?!" Danny held his face. "OW!"

"This is what I've been trying to tell you!" Kurai snapped. "Those ghosts last night were controlled by my lost powers."

"How?" Danny rubbed his face.

"That's what made me the Ghost Princess." Kurai said. "I had power over other ghosts. Even Father didn't have it. I put the ability in the Ring of Rage, that's why he was so desperate for it—why evil you were too, for that matter."

"So this power that controls ghosts..." Danny said. "It went flying off and found another ghost host?"

He chuckled at his rhyme.

"No it can only go to an acceptable host." Kurai said. "I expected it to go to you. I thought it did. You have that silver in your hair; after all. So some of my power did hit you—"

"Get to the point." Danny said wearily. "That mind control gave me a headache."

"That Freakshow caught my power in his staff." Kurai said. "The staff must have been forged with Capture Magic—the same stuff that's inside the Fenton Thermos."

"So how do we stop him?"

Kurai smirked. "We shatter that staff. But you can't go alone; you might get controlled again. I'm going with you."


	29. Circus Gothica

Danny and Kurai were on there way to Circus Gothica when Danny's Ghost Sense went off and he turned to see the dwarf ghost running with a heavy bag.

He looked up to see the rest of the ghosts, also carrying bags. "I'm goin' ghost!"

Danny leapt onto trashcan, then a truck, then into the air, went ghost, and chased after the ghosts as the cops caught up to them.

"Opening a new bank account? Don't forget your free toaster!" Danny fired ecto blast which knocked the money sack out of the dwarf's hands.

The sack landed on a cruiser, causing it to swerve into a fire hydrant.

"Curse you, ghost kid!" Cop said.

"Oh great, more fans." Danny said.

Danny chases the ghosts across town with Kurai in hot pursuit. They phased through a Circus Gothica billboard and Danny was temporarily hypnotized by Freakshow's orb.

Danny shook his head and phased through to find himself at the opening ceremony, where Circus Gothica's equipment and tents were already finished being set up.

Many goths were swarming the place.

"Terrific. The crooks got away, and, I've never seen so many goths out in broad daylight." Danny said.

"That and we're skipping school to case the joint." Kurai grinned.

"Are you a delinquent?" Danny asked.

Kurai winked. "Are you sure you're not a troubled teen?"

Goths opened up black umbrellas.

Danny landed. "What? I'm not in trouble."

Sirens were heard approaching.

"Oh yeah, you're an upstanding citizen. Need to hide from the law?" Kurai laughed.

Danny went invisible. "No."

Danny jumped behind a bunch of iron drums and de-ghosts. He and Kurai whistled nonchalantly as cops went by.

"Come back here, Inviso-Bill!" Cop said.

One train car opened with a drop-down ramp and Freakshow slowly stepped out of the shadows.

"Greetings, fellow outcasts. I am Freakshow, your master of ceremonies. Are you ready to smile, relax, and forget all your troubles amid the pleasant diversions of the circus?" Freakshow said.

"NO!" Goths said.

Freakshow walked amid the crowd. "Then you've come to the right place! Prepare to be disturbed and appalled by a small sample of the bizarre and abnormal world of Circus Gothica." Freakshow gestured back to the train car.

An arrow tied to a rope launches across from the car and embedded in a pole. A woman emerged, crawling on the rope much like an insect, the goths gasped. A man balancing on a ball and juggling skulls rolled out, a heavily-pierced woman within an iron, spiked wheel followed, and an incredibly tall man in a skeleton suit emerged last. The goths cheered and Danny found his gaze landing on Freakshow's staff and became mesmerized again.

"This is the worst." Kurai said. "Nothing could make this worse!"

Lancer entered the area. "This Circus is not welcome in our town! Boycott Circus Gothica!"

A large protest crowd gathered behind the teacher.

The goths booed at the protesters.

"What is he doing here?" Kurai said.

Freakshow leapt upon a crate above the crowd. "Don't let the rantings of the closed-minded norms beat you down. Show them your true colors! And when I say "colors", I mean "all black". Make them see you for who you are."

"Make them see us for who we are..." Danny's eyes turned red. "Hey everyone!" Danny waved arms. "Over here! We're Danny Fenton and Kurai Hikawa! We cut school and we're proud of it!"

The goth teens cheered as Danny posed proudly.

Goth Boy sprayed Danny's shirt black. "You're one of us, now."

"Why aren't you two in school?" Lancer said.

Kurai held her head in her hands.


	30. Grounded

Later, at Casper High, Kurai, Danny, and their parents were in the principal's office.

"Some might call this little act of rebellion a cry for attention, but I call it a cry for detention." Principal Ishiyama chuckled. "Isn't that clever?"

"Nice job, Danny. Maybe I should have cried "Hey! It's Inviso-Bill!"" Kurai snapped.

"I'm sorry! I don't know what came over me back there." Danny said.

"It was—." Kurai began.

"Bad judgment, that's what! Next time, think before you act!" Jack said.

"Now I declare as Kurai's legal guardian—" Lancer said.

Danny stared from Lancer to Kurai in shock.

"That you are grounded for a month!" Lancer said. "And absolutely forbidden from ever attending Circus Gothica!"

Xxx

That night, at the Circus Gothica fairgrounds.

"Slaves! Center ring!" Freakshow said.

The tall man in the skeleton costume pulled off the outfit. It was actually the dwarf ghost on stilts. The juggling man became the large ghost. The spider woman leapt down and is the eye-patched ghost. The heavily pierced woman revealed herself to be the tattooed ghost.

"For generations my family has controlled ghosts with this;" Freakshow held up staff. "untold power and all they could think to do was to entertain the masses, whereas I have found a much more profitable use for you minions—now that I have the ultimate power of the Ghost Princess—" Freakshow dug through chest of gold/money. "And as soon as the newest member of our cast joins us, this entire town will be mine for the taking."

The orb glowed and revealed Danny Phantom's face.

xxx

The next day, at the library at Casper High.

Kurai held up the Circus Gothica ticket. "I wanted to case the joint of a horrible unimaginable circus." She watched Lancer clip his toenails. "This was not what I had in mind."

"We can always go to the circus tomorrow. That is, assuming we're not grounded and your "legal guardian" allows it." Danny smirked, looking at Lancer.

"Shut up." Kurai snapped.

Tucker hid PDA behind a book. "Guess we'll have to settle for the live web-cast of opening night."

Freakshow appeared on Tucker's PDA.

"NO!" Kurai reached to turn it off; but too late!

"Creatures of the night, unleash your dark side at Circus Gothica!" Freakshow said.

"Oh no..." Kurai looked hopelessly at a now entranced Danny.

"Unleash your dark side at Circus Gothica..." Danny intoned, and walked towards the door.

Lancer jumped in front of Danny. "And just where do you think you're going, Mr Fenton?"

Danny's eyes turned red, he smiled and leapt into Lancer.

Danny, as Lancer, said, "Unleash your dark side at Circus Gothica..." He walked into janitor closet.

Danny phased out and locked Lancer inside.

"Cask of Amontillado!" Lancer banged on the door. "Let me out, let me out!"

"Danny, control yourself!" Kurai said. "Don't let that scepter control you!"

"Unleash your dark side at Circus Gothica." Danny phased through the ceiling.

"Man. We better follow him." Tucker said.

"We have _got_ to shatter that scepter!" Kurai said, strapping on her weapons.


	31. Entranced

It was Dusk at the Circus Gothica big top.

"Please welcome a performer who puts the "death" in "death-defying acts"... the Grim Reaper himself!" Freakshow gestured to the high wire.

A hooded figure wielding a scythe glided across the wire, causing gasps of shock, then balanced on the blade, causing cheers.

Outside, Kurai entered the big top by the "Cast Only" entrance.

"What are you doing back here?" Freakshow said.

"Freakshow." Kurai said. "Give me that staff!"

"Who do you think you are?" Freakshow snapped. "This staff is mine, girl!"

The staff began to shudder and resonate.

"Ghost Princess?" Freakshow looked at her incredulously. "Why would you sacrifice your ghost powers?!"

The hooded figure approached.

"What are you doing, dolt?! Get back out there and do your encore!" Freakshow snapped.

The hooded figure pulled back their hood and was revealed to be Danny.

"Kurai?" Danny asked.

"What's that? Was that-was that free will?!" Freakshow held his staff higher. "Obey me, minion!"

"What? Stop controlling him!" Kurai said.

"Get the Princess." Freakshow said.

Danny raised his scythe and Kurai screamed.

Xxx

At the center ring, Freakshow stood.

"Please welcome a brand new vict- talent to the high wire in her first...and final...performance." Freakshow gestured to the high wire.

Kurai was perched precariously on the wire with a blindfold on that Danny sliced off. Kurai looked down and almost lost her balance.

Tucker ran in. "Kurai?"

"Danny, listen, you don't wanna do this! You're being controlled!" Kurai attempted.

Danny raised his scythe and cut the wire with an evil laugh. Kurai screamed as she fell and Danny returned to normal, leaping down and saving her. The crowd cheered.

"Danny, don't scare me like that!" Kurai said.

Danny controlled again. "How should I scare you?" Danny backed off.

"Consider that a warning, Ghost Princess." Freakshow walked off.

"Did you find Danny?" Tucker asked.

"That was Danny, under the hood, Freakshow's controlling him! C'mon!" Kurai ran out.

Kurai and Tucker ran right into the mob of parents.

"Kurai! Tucker! Shouldn't you be in detention?" Maddie said.

"Uhm.. Lancer let us out?" Kurai said.

Xxx

"Let me out!" Lancer pounded on the door in the school utility room.

Xxx

"Hey, isn't Danny supposed to be with you?" Jack asked.

"He's not with us." Kurai said, too upset to think of an excuse.

Tucker looked at her, worried.

"Well he's not here and he's not at school, so where is he?" Maddie said.

xxx

Museum alarm went off and Freakshow's ghosts emerged, carrying various paintings. Danny emerged, decked in royal jewelry.

"Ecto-butts in gear!" Danny said.

Danny fired ecto blasts at the ghosts' rears, causing them to cry out. The ghosts flew off.

"This party's just getting started!" Danny followed.

Police cars came flying up the road.

"Oh please!" Danny fired ecto blast at the cars' tires.


	32. Sneak Out

Kurai was watching the TV News, on lockdown in her apartment.

"In the wake of parental protest, Circus Gothica ringmaster Freakshow had this challenge to his critics:" Yukiru reported on the news.

Yukiru went to Freakshow, standing in front of angry mob.

"I invite you to attend a free performance for parents, police, and concerned authority figures. See the show and see for yourselves that we're harmless entertainment." Freakshow said.

The tv moved back on Yukiru.

"In other news, police got a break in the recent rash of mysterious burglaries as security cam footage revealed the ghostly culprits." Yukiru said.

The tv switched to security camera footage of Freakshow's ghosts and Danny stealing money. Danny saw the camera and blasted it.

TV switched off. Kurai was sitting on her bed with her laptop by her. Tucker came on screen.

"Kurai, didja catch the news? We gotta do something to save Danny!" Tucker said.

"How ironic is it that I'm stuck under house-arrest while my legal guardian goes to a free Circus Gothica show?!" Kurai said.

"Only slightly less ironic than the fact that he was right about it being evil." Tucker said.

Kurai pulled out two intangibility bracelets and latched them on and walked through the wall and out of the apartment without being seen.

Xxx

In the Circus Gothica big top, Lancer was annoyed sitting next to Jack and Maddie Fenton and Maurice and Angela Foley.

Lancer was writing on clipboard. "I'm keeping a detailed list of anything I find objectionable, immoral, or obnoxious."

Jack spit soda/popcorn all over the Foley's and Lancer.

"He on the list?" Maurice asked Lancer.

"Right now, he is the list." Lancer snapped back.

Xxx

Outside, Kurai was sneaking about the grounds when a bat-shaped shadow falls on her. She hid under the train.

"Kurai?" Tucker said.

"Tucker?" Kurai said.

Tucker ducked to see her. "Hey Kurai. Is this a great Circus Gothica hat or what?" Tucker pointed to the bat on his beret.

Kurai got up and slapped the bat away, mad.

"I'll take that as an "or what."" TUCKER SAID.

Kurai and Tucker jumped on the train and went in through a top hatch in the caboose. They landed in piles of gold, money, jewelry, paintings, etc. They looked around and saw Freakshow's staff.

"There's the crystal ball! Let's grab it and-" Kurai said.

Suddenly Kurai and Tucker were blasted out of the caboose. Danny emerged with Freakshow. The train whistle sounded and the train pulled away.

"Danny! No!" Kurai said.

"Yes, yes, please scream. A shame anyone who might help you is busy enjoying my free show. HAAAH!" Freakshow laughed.

Tucker and Kurai chased after the train.

xxx

Back in the big tent, The tattooed ghost phased through the top and released her tattoos upon the crowd. The crowd screamed in terror.

"GHOSTS!" Jack and Maddie yelled.

Lancer pulled back the tent flaps in an attempt to leave and came against a brick wall.

"Prisoner of Azkaban! We're trapped!" Lancer said.

Maurice pulled the clipboard out of Lancer's hands. "Okay, that's objectionable, immoral, and obnoxious." Maurice wrote it down on the clipboard.

Xxx

Outside, Kurai and Tucker looked down upon the train from an overpass.

"We have to jump." Kurai said.

"You crazy? I can't jump." Tucker said.

"And I can't abandon Danny!" Kurai said.

She put two bracelets on Tucker and set them, then set hers.

"Zero-G." Kurai said. "NOW JUMP!"

The two jumped and bounced a little, until Kurai deactivated the bracelets.

xxx

"Stand back everyone!" Jack said.

Guns/phasers emerged from various parts of the Fentons' suits and fired in every direction while they made action poses. All of the tattoos were destroyed and the tattooed ghost was knocked away.


	33. Revolution

Kurai and Tucker run along the train cars towards the front. Inside, Freakshow and the three remaining ghosts heard their footsteps.

"What are you waiting for? GO!" Freakshow said.

The ghosts phased up in front of Kurai and Tucker, and Danny phased up behind them.

"Danny, it's us, Kurai and Tucker! You're best friends, remember?!" Kurai attempted.

Danny blinked. "Tucker? Kurai? I.. I.."

Kurai and Tucker smile hopefully.

Danny was shaking. "I...: Danny's eyes glowed. "..am a.. ghost. I have no friends."

Freakshow was now on top with them.

"Don't waste your breath, children. He's under my control now." Freakshow said.

Xxx

"We owe you Fentons a debt of gratitude and an apology!" Lancer said.

"Save it for the bake sale, Lancer. We need to bust out of this tent!" Jack said.

"Leave it to me!" Lancer said. "I'll whip this angry mob of parents into a frenzy!"

Soon, the crowd exploded out of the big top.

"Saddle up the Fenton RV! We'll head those spooks off at the pass!" Jack said.

Xxx

"Don't just stand there, finish them!" Freakshow said.

The train approached some scaffolding.

"Maybe you should try holding that thing up a little higher." Tucker said.

Freakshow raised staff and it was knocked out of his grasp as the train passed under the scaffolding. Tucker made a grab for it but missed and it landed in Danny's hand.

"Way to go man!" Tucker walked up to Danny, hand raised. "Now gimme five!"

Danny raised his hand and knocked Tucker away with a blast. Tucker hit the large ghost and was grabbed.

"Very good, drone. Now, bring me my staff. Come on, bring it." Freakshow made kissing noises

Danny looked uncertainly at the staff.

"Fight it Danny! He's not holding the crystal ball anymore, you are!" Kurai said. "Break it! That power belongs to you!"

Freakshow grabbed Kurai and threw her aside, causing her to nearly fall off.

"Silence! Obey me, ghost! Give me my staff. Come on. " Freakshow made kissing noises.

Danny looked uncertain again.

"I saw you up on that high wire, you were fighting him the whole time! Fight him now, Danny! You're not just a ghost! Fight him!" Kurai said. "Please! This power was meant for you!"

Danny groaned. "Quiet!" Danny held his head. "All of you! I need to think!"

Freakshow pushed her off the train.

"Danny!" Kurai screamed.

"Kurai?" Danny shattered the crystal. "KURAI!"

He leapt off the train, but he was too late—when suddenly the light from the ball struck Kurai and she transformed into Khione—only with white hair instead of blue—mid-air.

Danny flew to her and they caught in each other's arms—his eyes were green again.

"Danny.. are you okay?" Kurai said.

"I think so. It's all a blur. I did some bad stuff, didn't I?" Danny said. "Hey—you got your powers back!"

"Yeah I did." Kurai said. "You can fix what you did."

They landed back on the train.

"Good. Now maybe you can convince Tiny here to let go of me?" Tucker said.

The three ghosts' eyes also went back to normal.

"H-huh? Where are we?" Eye patched ghost said.

"Are we free? Finally free?" Dwarf ghost said.

"Only one way to find out." Danny said.

The ghosts and Danny ganged up on Freakshow, grabbed him, and phased into the train.

"Okay, uh, when I called you, er, "minions," it was really a-a term of endearment like-like "I love my minions!"" Freakshow attempted. "And obviously all honor and glory to the Ghost Princess."

Khione blasted him into the piles of gold, and Danny blasted them so they fell on top of him.

"Gah! Oh! That.. quite.. smarted.." Freakshow said.

The train pulled to a stop in front of/among police cruisers that had blocked the track.

"So, what d'ya say we stick around and explain to the cops we were being controlled by an evil ringmaster?" Danny suggested.

The ghosts phased out of the train.

"Ya know, I had a feeling that would be their answer." Danny and Khione phased out as well.

The cops busted down the door and Freakshow grinned innocently. A cop shoved Freakshow into the cruiser.

"Nice work, kids. You caught that weirdo goth punk thief red-handed!" Jack said.

"I'm just happy you're all safe!" Maurice said.

"More than safe, they're heroes!" Lancer said.

"We're so proud of you." Maddie said.

Xxx

Danny, Kurai, and Tucker were all in the library, being forced to study.

"BUT YOU'RE ALL STILL GROUNDED!"


	34. Vacation

It was Morning at FentonWorks.

"Oh, Crud! Of all the days to oversleep!" Danny Groaned and scrubbed his hair into it's trademark mess. "Can't have Lancer keep me after on the last day of school, so..." He went ghost and flew out his window. "I'll just take the aerial route."

Jack Fenton was in the shower, and looked up and saw Danny Phantom through the window.

Jack was Shouting out the window and shook his back scrubber at Danny. "You, ghost kid! I get my hands on you, I'll tear you apart" Jack Squeezed the duck so it squeaked. "molecule by molecule!" He picked up an ecto-gun off the shower floor and fired it at Danny, who dodged and flew away.

"Which is a perfect example of why I won't be going ghost during my Fenton family vacation." Danny said.

Jack was yelling after him "Listen to me when I'm talking to you!"

"It's summer! Starting at 3:30, I don't have to listen to anyone for a long, long time." Danny grinned.

Xxx

Danny flew over Amity Park Penitentiary. Inside Freakshow was in chains in an interrogation room. Guys in White Agents O and K approached from the darkness, Agent O were carrying a folder with Freakshow's name and a CLASSIFIED stamp on it.

"I hope you've enjoyed your stay with us, Freakshow." Agent K snapped.

Freakshow glared up at them, then faked fear mockingly. "Ooh, the Guys in White. Top-secret ghost catchers who can't actually catch ghosts."

Agent K clicked a button on a remote. A dark tank lit up, revealing Lydia floating unconscious inside.

"Care to revise that last statement?" Agent O said.

Freakshow was startled. "Lydia?" He scowled.

"No longer under your control." Agent K said.

Freakshow spoke coldly. "What do you want?"

Agent O looked in Freakshow's file then closed it. "Your knowledge of ghostly items. Anything you care to tell us about this?"

He clicked a remote and a panel opened up in the floor. A stand bearing a metal gauntlet with four empty slots for gemstones and a case of three gems rose out of it.

Freakshow was wide-eyed. "The Reality Gauntlet!" Freakshow Smiled innocently. "Never heard of it."

"We know how you envy ghosts." Agent K said.

"And we believe this to be an object of enough spectral power to eradicate ghosts forever. Perhaps including this one." Agent O pulled a photo of Danny Phantom out of the file.

"Ah, that Reality Gauntlet. I believe I've heard of it after all." Freakshow said.

Agent K clicked the remote, and Freakshow's manacles were released.

Freakshow rubbed his wrists. "Now then, the Reality Gauntlet." He Got up and walked around it. "Hmm, well, I don't know that much about it, but I believe these things" He pointed to the gem slots. "play a key role-may I try it on?"

"I suppose so." The agents exchanged a look. "It doesn't work anyway."

Freakshow clasped his hands. "Joy!" He picked up the Gauntlet and put it on his arm. "Each of these gems has a power." He picked up the square red stone from the case. "The red one, the Gem of Life." He set it into its slot on the Gauntlet. "It can make anything come alive. And I believe this one is the Gem of Form." He picked it up the yellow diamond-shaped stone and placed it as well. "It can transform anything into anything else...uh, so I've been told. And this" He held up the round blue stone. "is the Gem of Fantasy." He Placed it. "It can make your dreams real. These gems, if touched in the proper sequence, will allow the wearer to control all reality. But the Gauntlet is useless without its power source...which I just so happen to have right here!"

Both agents reached into their jackets as Freakshow reached into his pocket. "Freeze it, Freak!"

Freakshow pulled out a triangular orange gem, which he set in the final slot of the gauntlet. It and then the Gem of Form began to glow.

Freakshow Raised the now red-glowing Gauntlet. "Have a little taste of the Gem of Life!"

He blasted a red beam at the agents, which hit their ectoguns. The ectoguns immediately wrapped around the agents like pythons, trapping them.

"Now that's what I call living!" The Gauntlet smoked slightly and the glow retreated to just the Gem of Life. Freakshow looked down at it. "Blast! If I only knew the secrets to activate all the gems, I could control all reality. Still.." He reached into the fallen Agent O's pocket and pulled out an access card, which he put into a control panel, opening the tank containing Lydia. Lydia wakened and smiled, immediately kneeling in front of him.

Freakshow turned back to the agents as Lydia hooded up behind him. "This concludes our demonstration." The two walked away. "Now, if you'll excuse us..."

Lydia flew them both out of the penitentiary.

"What shall we do with our new-found freedom? Dinner? Movie? Make myself ringmaster of all reality?" Freakshow laughed and Lydia smiled as the Gauntlet glowed red again.


	35. First Move

The concert stage was set up next to Casper High. Panning over to the front of the school, there is a large banner over the doors reading "Dumpty Humpty Live Tonight". The bell rang, the doors burst open, and a crowd of shouting kids came running out to cheer around the stage. The trio walked through the door, holding folded sheets of paper.

"Finally! I've been looking forward to this summer vacation forever! The three of us, traveling together cross country seeing the sights." The paper Danny was holding was a flyer for "Space Camp in Florida". "Cape Canaveral Space Center in sunny Florida..."

Tucker was holding a flyer for the Comic Book Convention. "The Comic Book, Sci-fi and Fantasy Expo in sunny San Diego..."

Kurai was holding an Akon flyer. "And AKon in the Metro Dallas!"

"But tonight we rock out at the Dumpty Humpty concert!" Danny said.

Suddenly Jazz walked right into Danny, bonking both of their heads and making Jazz drop several books and papers.

"Jeez, Danny, watch it!" Jazz said.

"Jeez, Jazz, watch it!" Danny looked down at one of the books she's dropped in surprise, bending to pick it up. The title read 'Ghost Envy for Dimwits: Ghosts are not the Boss of Me' "Ghost Envy for Dimwits...ghosts are not the boss of me"? What is this?"

Jazz knelt to pick up her dropped papers. "My college entrance thesis on ghost envy. College might be a year and a half away but you can't be too prepared. In fact, did you know that ghosts often-"

Danny shoved the book at her. "Don't know, don't care, not listening. From now on, it's no more pencils, no more books, and no going ghost so my parents can't tear me apart" Danny gestured in illustration. "molecule by molecule."

Suddenly, people started running and screaming, and Danny's and Kurai's ghost senses went off. They looked up to see Lydia floating above the concert stage, her tattoo minions swirling around her and flying around attacking people. Kurai and Tucker screamed, and he saw that two of the tattoo creatures were flying off with them.

"Aaah, get away!" Paulina shouted. Danny started picking off the ghosts one by one. "He loves me!" He zapped another. "He loves me not." And the last one. "He loves me!"

The bat tattoos that had captured Kurai and Tucker dropped them in a trainyard and wrapped them up so they can't move. The Tattoo was keeping Kurai from using her ghost powers even; Freakshow had prepared for her.

Freakshow came to stand over them, wearing the Reality Gauntlet.

"Freakshow!" Tucker exclaimed.

"Why do you have the Reality Gauntlet?!" Kurai said, recognizing it.

"In the anemic flesh. How's tricks? Had a nice few months while I was rotting in jail because of you?" Freakshow said.

An ectoblast knocked him offscreen, and Kurai and Tucker grinned over at Danny, who had just arrived.

"Actually, yeah! I've been working on my aim!" Danny said.

Freakshow aimed a red beam of light from the Reality Gauntlet at the barbed wire security fence below Danny, which sprang up and wrapped around him, dropping to the ground.

"Hey!" Danny said.

"Danny he has the Reality Gauntlet! And he's activated the Gem of Life and Gem of Form!" Kurai shouted.

The bat covered her mouth.

"Silence Princess!" Freakshow shouted.

"Gem? Gauntlet?" Danny was confused.

The Gauntlet glowed yellow, and Freakshow shot a beam of yellow light at two nearby train cars. They reformed into two vaguely humanoid golems. Danny at first looked worried, but when the golems simply stood there unresponsively, he looked quizzically at Freakshow then popped out of the fence to go look more closely.

Danny laughed. "What are they gonna do, rust on me?"

Freakshow touched the Gem of Life. "And Freakshow said, let there be life!"

He redbeamed the golems, which activated and attacked Danny. One of them seized Danny by the jumpsuit with its teeth, shook him around, and threw him down, disoriented, at Freakshow's feet.

"Hm, that's odd. I commanded it to eat you." Freakshow Looked thoughtfully at the Gauntlet. "I need more practice."

Danny glared up at him, starting to get up, then looked to the side in alarm as the Guys in White showed up in a low hovercar. The agents stared up at the golems as they drove up, which turned to roar at them.

Kurai struggled and tried her best to break the power of the tattoo and transform, but even her powers could be trapped by Lydia.

"The Gauntlet is active. Bad news." Agent O reported.

"Very bad. When I file a report." Agent K pulled a pair of handcuffs out of his jacket. "I shall be affixing blame to you."

Agent O scowled and reached into his own jacket for handcuffs. "Not if I affix it to you first." Agent O spoke To Freakshow and his minions. "Freeze, freaks!"

"Freeze? If you insist!" Freakshow said.

He blasts a jet of yellow light and then one of red at a cloud above them, reforming it into a giant smiling monster of snow. It fell on the Guys and White and the robots, completely burying them.

"Now, where were we?" Freakshow reached down to grab Danny by the front of his jumpsuit. "I was going to ruin your life the way you ruined mine, ha!" He raised the red-glowing Gauntlet, but before he could strike; Danny knocked him to the ground with an ectoblast.

Danny was approaching "Show's over, Freak-yahh!"

Lydia phased through the ground and punched him away. Freakshow got to his feet, the Gauntlet still glowing red.

As a train engine pulled up behind him, whistling. "Looks like our little showdown is going to require a bigger audience." Freakshow cried. Lydia stepped out onto the back of the train, smirking at them. "A much bigger audience." Freakshow Laughed.

The tattoo bats trapping Tucker and Kurai released them, flying back to Lydia. Freakshow used the Gauntlet to bring the train engine to life; it sprouted a pair of bat wings and flew away, whistling. Danny, battered and scowling, walked over to his friends and looped his arms around them, ready to fly.

"Danny, what about Freakshow?" Kurai said, about to transform.

Agents O and K popped out of the snow nearby, shivering.

Danny put a hand on her shoulder, stopping her.

"Let the jerkcicles handle it. I'm on vacation. Besides, two words:" Danny said grinning. "Dumpty Humpty!"


	36. Secret's Out

They were at the concert, where an audience of kids are chanting "Dumpty! Humpty!" Spotlights shine down on a giant egg in the center of the stage. Back in the stands, Danny was looking excited, but Kurai's attention was focused on a large book.

"The Reality Gauntlet consists of four gems, which-" Kurai said, scribbling in her red book.

Danny put his hand over the page. "Guys, come on! It's summer. As in no more pencils, no more books..."

Tucker pointed at the book. You might want to take a look at this book. Kurai copied a lot of the information from Freakshow's notes."

"Well- I don't care, Kurai. As of right now—" Danny gave her back the book. "Freakshow is not my problem." The band started playing. "Oh, I love this part! This is where the band comes out of a giant egg."

Smoke hissed out over the stage then parted to reveal the giant egg. Two red eyes opened on it and it opened like a fanged mouth, the insides draining out.. The band members popped out gasping, and the audience gasps in return. Freakshow shimmered into view in the spotlight onstage.]

"Are you kids ready to have a great summer? Because Dumpty Humpty had a great fall!" Freakshow Laughed.

Lydia flew out into the stands and snagged Tucker and Kurai.

"No! Power disrupting again?!" Kurai shouted.

"Will this vacation ever start?" Danny Looked around, he ducked under the bleachers to go ghost.

The Gauntlet was glowing yellow. "Ah, the only thing better than an audience is a captive audience." Freakshow gestured, and seatbelts fastened everyone down to the bleachers.

Danny flew up and towards him.

"Show's over, Freakshow!" Danny said.

"Au contraire. That's French for, "I'll bet this hurts"." Freakshow punched Danny out of the air with the Gauntlet.

xxx

In the FentonWorks kitchen, where Maddie was backing a case of ectogear, Jack was rifling through the cabinets and Jazz is sitting at the kitchen table with two huge stacks of paper. On the counter, a TV was playing live footage from the crashed concert.

"I can't go on this trip. I need to write my thesis on ghost envy. If only I could find someone that fits the bill." Jazz Looked at her father meaningfully.

Jack looked down and saw Lydia on the TV. "Ghost!"

Maddie gasped and leapt over to sit on the table and watch the TV, scattering Jazz's papers everywhere.

"That was easy." Jazz said.

"It's ghost-based chaos at the Casper High School's Out Concert, where notorious ghost kid Danny Phantom is fighting for his afterlife." Lance Thunder said.

xxx

Back at the concert, Danny and Freakshow faced off on the stage. Freakshow used the Gem of Life on the drumset, turning it into a spider-like creature. Laughing, he sent it after Danny.

As it bore down on him, the Guys in White were sitting and watching the newscast, shivering in blankets with their feet in hot water baths and thermometers in their mouths.

"Let's roll-roll-" Agent O sneezed.

xxx

Back at the concert, the drum spider shot a web at Danny, which sent him flying and stuck in the football goalpost, leaving him trapped like a fly in a spiderweb. He struggled to free himself but was stuck.

"Any last words? Ah, might I suggest, 'Ah, Freakshow, don't hurt me.'" Freakshow said.

Behind him, Lydia still had Kurai and Tucker. Tucker pulled her hood down over her face, and she flew away screaming, crashing into the Ravens sign above the bleachers and sticking to it by one of her headspikes. Freed, Kurai turned into Khione and attacked Freakshow.

She hit him with RAN-GU and he fell back, giving her a chance to grab the glove. Tucker and Danny also managed to show up there and grab the glove too. Tucker touched the Gem of Form, Danny touched the Gem of Life, and Khione touches the Gem of Fantasy in their effort to stay aloft, evidently activating the Gauntlet.

"You did it-you found the combination that activates all the gems! Which means I control all reality!" Freakshow said. The world around them began to waver.

"You mean we control all reality!" Khione grinned

Freakshow Attempted to shake them off. "Let...go...of...my...Gauntlet!" He threw them again, but they all managed to grab back on.

Khione turned to Danny and Tucker, as Freakshow continued to try to dislodge them. "Quick, according to the book, the Gauntlet has a defense mechanism. Thinks of a place to hide the gem you're holding!"

Danny closed his eyes in concentration, and the Gem of Life vanishes. Khione and Tucker did the same for the Gem of Form and the Gem of Fantasy respectively.

There was a blue-white explosion. Tucker and Khione lying on the stage. They sat up, looking around. The drum spider crawled back to its original place, transforming back into a regular drumset, and the seatbelts trapping the audience disappeared. The crowd began to cheer, then gasped as a red fireball crashes into the stage. Freakshow emerged from the smoke.

"Blast! The gems have gone." Lydia phased through the stage to stand beside him. "We must flee! But dramatically!"

Lydia's tattoos detached and swirled around them in a blur, flying them away. Tucker stared up after them, and then another fireball hit the stage behind them. The smoke parts to reveal a smoking Danny Phantom and Khione, and they both struggled to their feet, disoriented, and reverted to Danny Fenton and Kurai Hikawa. They gasped, looking around, as realized they had just exposed themselves to hundreds of people. The crowd, staring back, gasped too. Looking up, the two Saya both the news helicopter and the Guys in White with jetpacks had also witnessed the transformation. Everyone began talking at once, and Danny and Kurai backed up nervously.

"Um, nobody saw that, right?" Danny and Kurai chorused.

Xxx

Back in the Fentons' kitchen, Jack and Maddie were staring at the TV in shock.

"You didn't see that, right?" Jazz said.


	37. Kidnapped

Danny was standing on stage in his human form, looking around at the crowd desperately.

"Holy sweatsocks! Danny Fenturd is Danny Phanturd?" Dash said.

"And that annoying girl is the Ghost Princess?" Paulina said.

Everyone was chattering and started climbing up to the stage to approach Danny, who was looking terrified. As they gathered around him, Tucker dove in to guard them, staving off the crowd with the drum stool and a microphone.

"Back! Back, savages!" Tucker said.

"Well, uh, it, could be worse?" Kurai said.

"Really? How?" Danny asked.

"Nobody move!" Guys in White said.

The newscopter and the GiW flew closer.

Xxx

Maddie spoke shrilly. "Our son is the ghost boy?!"

Jazz jumped in front of the TV and holding up her hands pacifically. "Now, now, let's not go jumping to any insane conclusions-"

She looked over at the doorway. Lancer and the Foleys are standing, all arms akimbo and frowning darkly.

"You!" Lancer said.

"You!" Jack said.

They confronted each other aggressively.

"I was watching the 'Masked Singer' when I found out your son was a ghost!" Lancer said.

"Why are you yelling at us?" Jack said. "Your daughter—er, foster daughter—is a ghost too!"

Maurice pushed the two men apart. "Now, fellas, it's ok to point fingers as long as nobody's pointing them at my son."

"Ok. Maybe Danny is the ghost boy; and Kurai is the ghost girl. But it's not as though our ghost activities have ever put your families in any danger!" Maddie said.

They all turned and gasped as the house started to shake. Lydia's tattoo ghosts streamed out of a vent, binding the Foleys and Mansons tightly. They all exchanged dark looks.

Jack shrugged sheepishly. "Until now."

The tattoo ghosts swirled around the Fentons too, capturing all of them.


	38. Saved By Magic

Back on the concert stage, Agents K and O approached the trio.

"You're coming in for questioning." Agent K said.

"And experiments. Lots and lots of really painful experiments." Agent O said.

Kurai tried to change but couldn't. "Danny I can't—"

"Tucker, Kurai, grab hold of me." Danny said; and They did so. "I'm going ghost!"

He transformed and they flew off to the crowd cheering and chanting Danny's name.

"Dude, you're a rock star." Tucker said.

Suddenly Danny reverted in midair.

"Who can't do anything!" Danny complained.

They plummetted, screaming, back to the stage, but Kurai caught a sudden burst of ghost power and lowered them carefully, before her power too winked out.

The agents landed nearby.

"I'll get us out of here." Kurai extend her hand. "SA-MA!"

The crowd parted and Kurai, Danny and Tucker disappeared into it.

Agent K pointed after them. "He's lost his ghost powers. And the Ghost Princess still has hers."

"Get him!" Agent O said.

They took off with their jetpacks. The agents flew by overhead, and the three teens crawled out the back of the audience and ran for it. They hid behind the locker room and were looking back to see if they were followed, when the door opened behind them and three varsity jacketed arms reached out and yanked them inside. The agents passed by, not seeing anyone there. The lights came up in the dark locker room to reveal that Danny and his friends' unlikely rescuers were Paulina and the football team.

Danny was taken aback. "You're...helping me?"

"Well, duh! You've only been helping us for like, ever!" Dash said.

"Even you, witch." Paulina said.

"Uh. Thanks?" Kurai said. "But I can disguise us myself."

"Give us a chance to help the heroes for a change." Dash said.

Outside, Agents O and K were vulturing around with their jetpacks, using ecto-devices that looked like metal detectors to scan the ground around the locker room.

"He couldn't have got far without his ghost powers." Agent K said.

The locker room door opened, and the football players and Paulina walked out. At the end of the file were Danny in a football helmet and uniform, Tucker in the Ravens mascot costume, and Kurai in a cheerleading uniform, hiding her face with the pom-poms. They walked past the agents unnoticed and into the woods. Danny and Tucker took off their respective head coverings as Dash and Paulina walked up to them.

"You can burn that." Paulina said. "I don't wanna be cursed."

Kurai smiled. "All I need to curse you is your name...Paulina."

Paulina covered her mouth in a shriek and ran away.

Danny grabbed a laughing Kurai by the shoulders and pulled her away.


	39. Spoiled Ham

At FentonWorks. The trio were hiding in the alley beside the house. Danny peeked around the corner, scoping out the street.

"Ok, I zip in, get my stuff-" Danny said.

"Then what? Run away from home?" Tucker asked.

"Well, what choice do I have? The whole world knows my secret! But if I can get the Gauntlet, I can change reality so that none of this ever happened." Danny stepped through the front door into the dark living room. "Believe me," Danny flicked on the light. "it'll be better for everyone if I just-" he paused, seeing something that caught him up short. "uh, disappear?"

They were confronted with a squad of armed and armored Guys in White, led by Agents O and K, powering up their ectoguns. Two agents seized Tucker.

"For those still counting, that's three times we've been grabbed today." Tucker said, annoyed.

"Human is secure. Take down the ghost children!" Agent O said.

"Where are my mom and dad? What have you done with them?" Danny said.

Lydia passed invisibly through the wall. She sent three of her tattoo bats to the trio, each attaching itself to one of them unnoticed. Then she left again.

"Daniel Fenton and Kurai Hikawa, in accordance with the Federal Anti-Ecto Control Act, Article 1, Section 1, Sub-section A, you two are under arrest." Agent K said.

"I'm only gonna say this once. Let my friend go, and get out of my house!" Danny said.

"Or what?" Agent O asked.

Danny and Kurai exchanged looks.

"Or this!" Kurai Ran to a curtained wall, she threw back the curtain to reveal a red button behind a glass case labeled "In Case of Fenton Emergency, Break Glass!" Using the hammer hanging there, she broke the glass and pressed the emergency button. Immediately an alarm sounded and a red light started flashing.

"FentonWorks Anti-Creep Mode activated." Jack recording said. The agents looked around angrily. "Our special today is fudge. I mean pain."

Metal claws shot out from behind pictures on the wall, seizing the two agents that had grabbed Sam and Tucker and smashing them together.

"Fire ectoweapons!" Agent O said.

The agents opened fire on the trio, but a large clear barrier shaped like Jack's head popped out of the floor, shielding them.

Tucker protected his head with her arms. "What's going on?!"

"The house attacks anything using ecto-energy. I'm going ghost!" Danny said.

"NO!" Kurai tried to warn him.

He transformed, and immediately five different weapons drop out of the ceiling and targeted him. He quickly reverted to human form and they retracted.

"If you go ghost the house will think that you're an enemy. Run!" Kurai said.

They run, and several agents leap out at them. Three torpedos shot out of the TV and unfolded into four-pronged devices that pinned the agents to the wall and zapped them. There was a quick montage of the flexible metal claws bashing agents around.

"Where are your parents?" Kurai asked Danny.

"Probably looking for me...or a scalpel to dissect me with." Danny said.

They ran up the stairs.

Agent came down the the stairs, gun aimed. "Freeze!"

Danny halted and threw his arms out so his friends didn't pass. "Ok!"

A red light dropped out of the ceiling, the siren resuming. Metal cutouts of Jack and Maddie looking inordinately cheerful considering the situation smashed the agent first from one side, then the other. He fell down the stairs, knocking down Agents O and K. Danny, Kurai, and Tucker ran into the Fenton master bedroom. Danny pulled up a round rug, exposing what looked like a steel manhole cover, and they all stepped onto it.

"Three to the Op Center!" Danny said.

A clear tube dropped down from the ceiling and sucked them upward. They exited into the Op Center through the Fridge, emerging from it coughing in a cloud of cold air or smoke.

"Man, your dad really needs to get rid of that ham." Tucker said.


	40. Invisible Escape

Outside, five agents fired grappling hooks up at the Op Center, and started coming up the lines. Danny started working at the controls.

"Time to lock up for the night!" Danny said.

Metal barriers closed down over the windows as the agents reached them. Inside, the trio all looked up in alarm as sparks started flying from the ceiling. Two agents were cutting through with a laser. Danny ran to open the fridge. Next to the Emergency Ham was a red button labeled "Emergency Op Center Release Button". Danny punched it. The entire Op Center started shuddering, retracting all of the instruments and devices on the outside. The agents outside were all knocked off as a giant blimp with Jack's face on it unfurled from the top and the Op Center detached from the roof of the townhouse and flew away. The trio stared down through a window.

"The Fenton Blimp? We could have flown out faster!" Kurai said incredulously.

"Not quite." Danny Moved the Emergency Ham, he revealed another red button hidden beneath it. He pressed it.

Outside, O and K were catching up with their jetpacks.

"We're gaining on it!" Agent O said.

"Of course we are, it's a blimp." Agent K said disgustedly.

The Fenton Blimp suddenly shed the balloon and reformed into a jet.

"...and now it's not." Agent K said.

The jet took off. Danny was at the tiller, looking strained, as they dove toward Casper High.

"We're gonna destroy the school!" Tucker shouted.

"I don't know what to do!" Danny cried.

"Do something!" Kurai screamed.

"Wait!" Danny realized.

He pressed a button on the dashboard labeled 'Auto Jack' and dashed back to join his friends in the passenger seats. An inflatable version of Jack Fenton unfurled from the tiller into the pilot's chair.

"Auto Jack activated. Please buckle up and pass the fudge." Auto Jack said.

All three teens buckle their seatbelts, looking none too certain about this state of affairs. The Auto Jack successfully pulled out of the nosedive, hurtling down the street and narrowly missing a semi as the kids scream. Looking out the window, they saw that Agents O and K had caught up again in mini jet planes.

"Why won't they give up!" Kurai asked.

Danny went ghost and ran to the bulkhead. Bracing against it, he went invisible, and with effort started to turn the jet invisible as well.

"Danny let me help!" Kurai transformed and ran over and helped him.

They turned the jet invisible together.

Xxx

As the fuselage of the plane vanished. "We're losing visual! Activate White Fang Tracking Device!" Agent O said.

Agent K was unimpressed. "White Fang?"

Agent O was exasperated. "I don't name this stuff."

A canister dropped out of Agent K's jet, unfolding into a four-pronged device that latched onto the Fenton Jet as it went completely invisible and flew away.


	41. Hidden Gem

The empty blue sky was zipping by.

"We lost them yesterday. You guys can stop now." Tucker said.

The jet materializes. Inside, Danny and Kurai reverted to human and collapsed to sit against the bulkhead, exhausted.

"We should contact your parents." Tucker said.

"And tell them what? "I'm sorry I've been lying to you, and please don't rip me apart molecule by molecule"? Besides, if they have anything to say to me they can always contact me." Right on cue, the communications console started beeping. "Ugh...here we go."

He keyed something into the console and Freakshow's face appeared on the screen.

"Oh, hello. Hope I'm not interrupting the worst day of your life ever! But it seems I need your help." Freakshow said.

"I'm sorry, did I say 'need'? I meant demand!" Danny Laughed.

He stood back and gestures gradiosely, showing them that the Fentons, and Foleys were trapped in a cage behind him.

Danny gasped. "He's got my parents!"

"He's got all our parents." Tucker said.

"Mom! Dad!" Danny said.

"Why look. I have something you want." Freakshow said pointing at Danny. "And you know the location of something I want: my gems, which you three fools will retrieve if you ever want to see your families alive again!" Freakshow spoke offhandedly. "Oh, and just to keep it dramatic, you have three days." He laughed, and the screen cut to static.

"Three days? But we don't even know where to start looking!" Danny said.

"We're the ones who hid the gems, remember?" Kurai said to him. "Which means they're safe and sound at Akon."

"Except I was thinking about the comic book convention." Tucker said.

"And I was thinking about the Space Center." Danny said.

"Looks like we're gonna get that cross country trip together after all." Tucker said.

Danny pointed as a map dropped down behind him. "Starting here." Danny indicated Florida.

"Auto Jack setting new course for Cape Canaveral, Florida." Auto Jack said.


	42. Life

At the launch site. A tour group was going up in an outdoor elevator.

"And now, we'll get a close-up look at the famous Space Shuttle." Tour Guide said.

Little boy discovered the Gem of Life on the floor of the elevator. "Whoa, what's this?" He picked it up. "Some kind of moon rock?"

Back on the Fenton Jet, Tucker was sulking in his seat.

Tucker turned to Danny. "No fair! How come we get to go your place first?"

"Does it matter? We're not here to have fun. We're here to look for the Reality Gems." Danny said.

"They are activated by touch. So as long as nobody found it yet..." Kurai said. "...maybe this will be easy."

The gem fell out of the elevator, landing on the nose of the Space Shuttle, which glowed red. The shuttle abruptly launched itself, flying into the air. Its windows narrowed to red eyes and the nose opened into a sharp-toothed mouth. Zooming around, it flew right at the Fenton Jet, jaws wide open.

"It's never easy, is it?" Kurai said as the shuttle approached.

The trio screamed. The shuttle clampeed the Fenton Jet in its metal jaws, sending the teens crashing into the bulkhead.

"Going Ghost!" Kurai and Danny said.

He transformed and turned the jet intangible, allowing them to escape. Flying out through the bulkhead, Khione went back to confront the shuttle and threw a couple ineffective ectoblasts at it. As she hesitated, the shuttle hit Danny, flattening him up against the windshield. Through the window, he could see the Gem of Life sitting in the pilot's seat. He grinned, but before he could do anything about it, the shuttle growls and threw him off. Plummeting, he hit the airfield so hard he left a crater. The Fenton Jet swooped down to land nearby.

"Khione, go, get the gem!" Danny called to her.

Khione flew up to the shuttle again, narrowly missing a snap and grabbing it by the fin. It tried again to shake her off, but she started climbing up the fuselage. A chunk of the outer hull peeled away in her hands.

"This is harder than it looks." Khione said. "I'm no good at climbing."

Flying back up to the windshield, Khione went intangible and reached inside to grab the gem.

Khione held it aloft triumphantly. "Yes!"

She flew back into the Fenton Jet.

Immediately the Shuttle reverted to it inanimate form, halting in defiance of physics and falling straight down. It was going to land on the Fenton Jet.

Tucker was exasperated. "We had to come here first."

With a determined look, Danny went intangible and flew into the shuttle cockpit, sitting at the controls.

"Ok, I've run the simulation a million times on my computer." Danny said.

He jabbed at various buttons and switches, activating the landing gear. Tucker hugged the Auto Jack as the shuttle approached, but it narrowly missed. Danny released the parachutes and brought the shuttle to a safe landing. He slumped tiredly, smiles briefly at the controls, then flew back outside.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the eagle has landed...intact!" Danny said.

"Attention Daniel Fenton, AKA Danny Phantom. Give yourself up!" Agent said on PA.

The two GiW jets were approaching, one of them firing a torpedo at the Fenton Jet. Inside, Kurai and Tucker run from the window. Danny shields his face as there is a blue-white explosion, sending debris everywhere. However, Kurai and Tucker spring out of the smoke cloud on a pair of motorcarts, perfectly safe and sound.

The agents fired more torpedos and Kurai and Tucker drove to evade them, Danny zoomed after them in the air. Placing a hand on each cart, he made them intangible and they all sank through the tarmac.

"We've lost visual again!" Agent O said.

"Don't worry, they won't get far. We've got sensors everywhere." Agent K said.


	43. Ghost Envy

There was a police roadblock on a rural highway.

"All units, be on the lookout for the ghost boy and his accomplices. I repeat: all units be on the lookout for the ghost boy and his accomplices." Radio said.

Beyond the roadblock, Danny and his friends re-emerged from the ground.

Danny pulled the Gem of Life from his belt. "Let's just put you someplace where your ghostly energy can't get out." He dropped it into a Fenton Thermos. "One Reality Gem found, two to go."

Kurai scoffed. "We'll never make it across the country in time on these things!"

Flying over, Danny pushed a button on Kurai's dashboard. The cart converts itself into a hovercraft and Kurai smiled.

"And now we will. Shall we?" Danny said.

Tucker converted his cart as well, and the three sailed off into the sunset.

Xxx

It was night at a Good Eatin' All-Nite Bar-B-Que Restaurant.

"Can you hurry it up, Tucker? We're on a deadline." Kurai said.

Inside the diner, Kurai and Danny had already cleared their plates.

"Emphasis on "dead"." Kurai said.

Tucker tossed another clean bone on his plate. "We have to eat, Kurai. Tucker Picked up a whole fried chicken. "And I'm a meat connoisseur in the land of barbecue and bacon fat."

"A nationwide search continues for this ghost-powered teenager." Lance gasped, the trio looked up. A video of Danny transforming was inset on the news. "If you have any information, please contact local authorities."

The diner cook, the waitress, and a customer drinking coffee at the bar all turn to look at Danny then pulled out their cellphones.

"Uh, sorry about this." He quickly blasted their phones.

"Hey, I still had minutes left!" Customer said.

On their way out the door, Danny spoke. "You gotta watch those roaming charges."

They took off on the hovercars again, Danny now driving Tucker's car instead of flying on his own power.

"But Thursday's all you can eat night!" Tucker said.

Danny turned to him angrily. "Not if we're in jail! We're trying to save our parents, remember? Wherever they are."

One of Lydia's bats poked out from behind Tucker's backpack for a moment revealing they were being tracked.

xxx

Freakshow had made his temporary campout on an abandoned stretch of railroad in a field. Lancer, the Foleys, and Fentons were all in separate cage cars hitched to the train engine Freakshow and Lydia escaped in earlier. Lancer crawled to the end of the cage.

Lancer spoke to the Foleys. "This is Fenton's fault. Pass it down."

Maurice Crawled across their cage to pass it on to Jack. "This is Fenton's fault. Pass it down."

Jack started to pass it to Maddie. "This is-wait a minute!"

Maddie put a calming hand on his arm. "Settle down now, Jack. It's all right." Maddie spoke unhappily. "This whole business about Danny being the ghost boy has got me just as confused and baffled as you."

"Imagine, our own son has had ghost powers all this time and has kept them a secret from us." Jack was confused. But we love him!" Jack turned to Maddie. "I wonder why he didn't trust us enough to tell us."

Jazz spoke sarcastically. "Hmm, let me guess." Jazz began mimicking Jack. "Hey, Maddie, let's destroy the ghost!" Jazz began mimicking Maddie. "No, Jack, let's dissect the ghost." Jazz began mimicking Jack again. "I know, let's catch the ghost and rip it apart molecule by molecule!" Jazz spoke in her normal voice, sarcastic again. "You guys are so understanding."

Jack and Maddie dropped their gazes, ashamed.

Freakshow approached. "Your beloved children have but a day to return my Reality Gems." He stopped in front of the Fentons' cage. "Should they fail, well, let's just say I've got plans."

Jazz was unimpressed. "So in other other words, we're just gonna sit around until you get your stones. Not much of a bad guy, are you?"

Freakshow spoke narrowly. "What's that?"

"Well, you don't have any powers. I mean technically Lydia's a lot stronger than you, and without her-" Jazz said.

Freakshow was throwing a tantrum. "I will not- be upstaged- by ghosts!" Freakshow's eye was twitching.

"Wow." Jazz exchanged a knowing look with Maddie. "Jealous much?"

Freakshow was calm again. "Of ghosts? Untrue. I love ghosts. Worked with them all my life."

"By seeking to control them." Jazz said. "Sounds like ghost envy to me."

Freakshow yelled right in her face. "I don't have ghost envy!"

Lydia phases through the next car over and landed on the ground a few paces away.

Freakshow snapped at Lydia. "Use the door like a person!"

Lydia looked nonplussed.


	44. AKon

Predawn on a city highway. The trio passed a billboard reading "aKon: 5 miles". Danny is flying again. Khione is flying next to him.

"Akon! The ultimate celebration of anime and cosplay!" Khione exclaimed.

They all pulled up, gasping. Cresting a ridge, they discovered a sunny grassy valley of flowers, smiling teddy bears, and cheerful banners surrounding a giant pink teddy. The trio lands, and a wave of teddy bears approached them.

"We love you!" Teddy Bears said.

"Aw they're so cute." Khione said as several of the teddy bears landed on her. "But we gotta break the spell. Danny?"

Danny had picked up several groupies of his own but was more relaxed about it.

Danny was cheerful to the bears. "May I have the Gem of Form?"

"Say the magic word!" Teddy Bears said.

"Anime? Cosplay? Adorable?" Khione grinned.

"Please." Danny said sweetly.

The sea of teddy bears parted to let through a pink bear carrying the glowing yellow stone, which Danny accepted. He began to drop it into the thermos, and on second thought flashed the gem around. The grassy meadow became a building full of nerds with manga in costumes and a stage with voice actors and YouTube stars.

Khione relaxed as the two teddy bears hugging her turned into nerds, dropping her arms around their shoulders. "Aahh. I love anime and cosplay. Danny wanna go meet Eric Vale?"

"We can't." Danny dropped the Gem of Form into the thermos. "Two gems down, one to go. And less than 24 hours to find it."

He gasped as nerds started screaming and a GiW tank bore down on them. It fired a torpedo at Danny, which missed and crashed into a rock formation. Inside, Agents O and K aimed again for Danny. Danny grabbed Khione and Tucker by their collars, went intangible, and flew through the nearest rock formation. The Agents slammed their fists down on the dashboard with a growl of frustration.

On the other side of the rock formation, Danny saw a semi traveling along a highway, and flies them inside. The side of the truck read "The Worldly Week Inquisitor - Your #1 Source for Danny Phantom Information" and is blazoned with a picture of Danny's face half morphed. Inside the truck were bales of newspapers.

Danny reached down to pick up a paper. "What's this? Oh, great."

He turned the newspaper so they can see it. The main headline reads "Ghost Kid and Friends Still Missing!", and had headshots of all three of them. The truck drove onward.


	45. On the Way

Freakshow was standing on the back of his train.

"Ghosts, ghosts, ghosts!" Freakshow said angrily.

He stomped down the stairs and past the campfire to the Fentons' cage, where Jack and Maddie were asleep but Jazz was still awake, writing on a notepad.

"You have no idea what it's like living in the shadow of ghosts all your life." Freakshow complained.

Jack was snoring and talking in his sleep. "Ghosts...ghosts!"

"Oh, I think I have some idea." Jazz said sardonically.

"My parents loved ghosts more than me. My audience loves ghosts more than me. And deep down, I think I love ghosts more than me." Freakshow went on.

"Tell me about it." Jazz agreed.

"Sometimes I wish I was a ghost." Jazz and Freakshow said.

They exchanged a surprised look.

Freakshow approached the cage. "You really do understand me, don't you, child?"

Jazz glanced sidelong at her father, who was muttering 'ghost ghost ghost' in his sleep.

"More than you know." Jazz sighed.

Xxx

It was morning in San Diego. The truck stopped at Hollywood and Vine and the trio phased through to land on the sidewalk, Danny and Khione in ghost mode. As the truck pulls away, a giant screen behind them showed Danny morphing from human to ghost and back and flashing the words "Ghost kid's identity revealed". Cameras flashed, and people started to gather around the trio, snapping pictures of Danny. He tried to hide his face, grabbing his friends and sinking intangibly through the ground. They emerged in the Hollywood subway station.

"We've just gotta find a train that's headed for the comic book convention without drawing any attention." Danny said.

A Danny cosplayer turned to Danny. "Dude! Great costume!"

He ran to the train, and following him, and people were lined up at a train labeled "Comic Fab or Bust". More than half of them were dressed as either Kuri or Danny Phantom. Kuri and Danny looked nonplussed.

Tucker grinned. "I think we found our train."

They joined the line.

Tucker looked up the line. "What? No Tuckers? Am I not geek-worthy?"

Behind them, Agents K and O entered the subway station.

Agent K pointed. "Over there!"

They came up behind a kid with white hair and and a Danny Phantom jumpsuit.

Agent O grabbed his shoulder. "Ok, spook boy. It's all over."

The Danny Cosplayer brushed off the agent's hand huffily. "Paws off! This suit's handmade."

Agents K and O looked around in time to see the real trio waving at them from the departing train.

"The train's leaving!" Agent K said.

"We know where it's headed." Agent O said.


	46. Gem of Fantasy

At the convention, The trio looked around saw several more Danny and Kurai cosplayers.

Tucker was dismayed. "Still no Tuckers. A crying shame. I even come with gadgets!" Tucker pulled several out of his pockets.

"Hm. Everything here looks normal." Danny said.

Kurai watched a tiny cosplayer in a green outfit pass by and laughed. "Not quite normal."

"Oh, you know what I mean. I don't think anyone's triggered the Gem of Fantasy yet." Danny said.

They walked inside. In front of them three exaggeratedly nerdy cosplayers: a girl in a vaguely wolfish outfit, a big guy in a blue outfit studded with rocks, and a skinny chap in a red samurai costume. Blue Chunk held up the Gem of Fantasy.

"Behold, the Crystal Leviathan's life-sustaining Kleptonian gem!" Blue Chunk said.

"Wow, where'd you find that?" Red asked.

Wolfgirl grabbed it. "Lemme see, lemme see!"

As she gazed down at it, the gem began to blaze with blue light, blinding and burning her.

Wolfgirl flung it away. "Ow!"

Red caught it and then juggled it in his hands. "Agh, hot!" He flung it away as well.

Blue Chunk caught it, and it glowed even brighter, making them all squint and cover their eyes. Suddenly Blue Chunk transformed into a monster of blue crystal, Red Samurai changed into a real red samurai with a flaming sword, and Wolfgirl transformed into a scary wolf...cat...thing. The three of them hovered in the air.

Danny looked up at them. "Awesome! The Gem of Fantasy turned three regular nerds into superheroes!" Danny gestured to them as he turned to Tucker. "They can help us rescue our parents!"

"You need to read more comic books." Tucker pointed. "Those aren't superheroes-they're supervillains!"

Danny looked back up at the three supervillains in dismay as they began to attack.

Wolfgirl, Blue Chunk, and Red Samurai started attacking people. The trio scattered as Red threw a red blast at them. Danny went tumbling and landed at Blue Chunk's feet.

"I've gotta get that gem before these geeks do some real damage." Danny said.

Sitting up, he fired an ectoblast at Blue Chunk, knocking the Gem of Fantasy to the ground. Danny lunged to retrieve it, but Blue tackled him and threw him into a Danny Phantom display. A biography of Danny Phantom landed open on his face. Picking it up, he realized what it is.

"Hey! I never approved of this!" Danny scowled.

Kurai and Tucker run to pick up the gem, but WolfGirl jumped in front of it.

"You shall not pass. So speaks Empress She-Wolf!" Wolfgirl said.

Kurai transformed into Khione and created a barrier to protect them.

"That may be the hottest geek I've ever laid eyes on." Tucker said.

Khione held up the barrier, protecting Tucker.

Empress She-Wolf morphed into a significantly more wolfy and less humanoid model, roaring.

"Yeah? Is she still hot?" Khione asked, grunting as she held up the barrier.

"Yeah, still hot." Tucker admitted.

Danny tackleed She-Wolf to the floor, and she morphed back into her semi-human form, dazed.

"Aah! Our comics have come alive!" A cosplayer ran off.

Behind him, Blue Chunk smashed its fists into the floor, roaring.

"I don't know whether to be horrified or run and report this on the internet!" Another geek said.

Going intangible, Danny flew up through the roof. Red and Blue Chunk went after him, smashing a hole in the ceiling, and She-Wolf followed. Danny flew over the street, the supervillains running after him on top of the streetlights. Gaining, She-Wolf twirled a wolf's claw overhead on a cable and threw it after Danny. It grabs him by the ankle and she slammed him down to the roof. Danny rolled, narrowly missing getting crushed by Blue Chunk, who he grabbed by the leg and tied to a nearby flagpole.

"Now to finish off the reset of the legion of super-dweebs." Danny said.

"I got it Danny!" Khione flew off and attacked Red. Diving back down, she smashed headlong into Red, sending them both crashing to the roof.

Then, as if Khione and Danny didn't have enough problems, Agents O and K landed nearby with their jetpacks.

Agent O was out of breath. "Man, these cross country ghost chases are like...totally exhausting."

The agents shot a pair of nets out of their ectoguns, trapping Khione and Red. Launching back into the air, they fired several more shots at the mysteriously freed Blue Chunk and She-Wolf, but missed. Red slashed through the net with his sword, attacking the agents and apparently damaging their jetpacks. Agents K and O crashed to the roof. Khione throws off the net, springing into the air.

"Danny you'll have to take it from here." Khione said, transforming back into Kurai. "That net drained my powers."

Danny flew over. "Not so fast!"

Red started to say something in a muffled foreign language, but Danny blasted the three of them. From the resulting flash of light the Gem of Fantasy fell. Danny caught it. The supervillains crashed to the roof, and when the smoke cleared away they're a tumbled heap of normal cosplayers. Red looked up as the Agents came to stare down at them.

"Hey, you're just geeks." Agent K said.

Red held up a finger. "Technically we're enthusiasts."

Danny flew down to land by Kurai and Tucker.

"Kurai, are you alright?" Danny took her hand. Some of his power went into her and she was healed.

"You helped me. Thank you." Kurai smiled and blushed.

"Nice work, Danny. We've got all three gems now!" Tucker said.

"And Freakshow only has one. That means once we find him, we can beat him and take the Gauntlet!" Danny dropped the Gem of Fantasy into the thermos.

Lydia came up behind him. Her bat minions that were attached to Tucker flew out from him and return to her as she threw back her hood. Then her tattoos all detached, flying toward the trio and surrounding them.

Kurai looked around at the tat minions. "Uh, guys?"

Tucker was oblivious. "We can save our parents!"

Danny was also oblivious. "And we can change reality so that nobody remembers my secret."

Danny and Tucker finally noticeD the ghosts, too late. The tattoo ghosts swirled around them and they all vanished, reappearing by the train where Freakshow has set up camp. The trio fell to the ground, dazed, and Lydia reclaimed her minions.


	47. Change the World

Freakshow came to loom over them, wearing the Gauntlet. The power gem was blinking. "Well, well. Look what the bats dragged in...with my Reality Gems!" Freakshow rubbed his hands together.

Danny glanced at the thermos, then standing up and starting to open it, determined. "I don't think so." Some of Lydia's tattoos snatched it from his hands and he tried ineffectively to catch it. "What? Ah!" They dropped it into Freakshow's hand. "Oh, no."

Another tattoo creature wrapped around the trio, binding them together helplessly. Freakshow opened the Fenton Thermos, poured the gems into his hand, and tossed the thermos away.

As he placed each one into the Gauntlet, Freakshow continued. "The Gem of Life...the Gem of Form...the Gem of Fantasy...and put them with a power source, and thanks to you," Freakshow tapped his head. "I now know how to activate the Gauntlet!" He laughed, then started tapping out the sequence.

"Danny, stop him!' Kurai tried to transform but failed.

Danny struggled. "I can't break free!"

Freakshow completed the sequence. "Thanks to you, I am now ringmaster of all reality!" Fireworks went off behind him as he rose up on a pedestal, now wearing a more elaborate hat and coat and wielding a red-gemmed scepter. He waved the Gauntlet, and the sunny sky turns into a starry night. "Neato, huh?" Freakshow Laughed, he glanced over at the trio's families, still locked in their cages.

Danny should angrily. "Let 'em go, Freakshow! I brought you the gems. We had a deal!"

Freakshow walked over to the trio. "The deal was, bring me the gems if you want to see them alive again. Well," He gesturied. "here they are: alive-for now." Freakshow Laughed.

The Gauntlet glows red, and the Fentons, Foleys, and Mansons vanish. Freakshow then gestured to Tucker, who also vanished. All of them reappear in a car on a giant roller coaster, which seemed to have appeared spontaneously. We see that there are lethal barriers along the ride, a fire-breathing Jack-in-the-Box and two giant stone mallets that crash together over the track; and the track ends at 'Deadman's Drop', a dead end with a pool of bubbling, steaming green something-or-other at the base of the fall. Lydia threw a lever, and the roller coaster car begins to move. Its unwilling passengers scream as the car raced down the track.

Kurai and Danny were still bound and furious. You lied to us!"

Freakshow looked at Danny and Kurai over his shoulder] Yes, yes I did. Goody for me." Freakshow turned. "But it wouldn't be drama if I didn't give you a sporting chance."

Smiling, he raises the Gauntlet, making Danny and Kurai's bindings disappear in a red flash. Danny looks down at his fists, then up at Freakshow as he bent down to his face level.

"And an audience!" Freakshow said.

There were vast stands where an audience of thousands was seated, a giant screen above the stands displaying video of Danny looking around. The stands were full of cheering fans.

Danny and Khione turned to the roller coaster, where their friends and their families were screaming through a loop. Freakshow gestures expansively as Danny and Khione launched himself into the air toward the coaster.

"Ladies and gentlemen, freaks of all ages," Freakshow's scepter turned into a microphone. "may I direct your attention to the center ring-" Freakshow gestured.

Danny flew as fast as he can toward the roller coaster, a look of grim determination on his face.

"-where Danny Phantom, AKA Danny Fenton, and Khione, AKA Kurai will attempt to rescue their friends and family from a ghastly doom of my own construction!"

Danny landed on the track a ways ahead of the coaster car but is immediately hit by a beam of gold light which transforms him into immobile orange gelatin.

"Hey, what did you do to Danny?" Khione shouted.

The coaster car hit him and splattered him everywhere.

"Only to be stopped at every turn by the master of all reality." Freakshow took off his hat and bowed.

Khione was horrified. "DANNY!"

"It can't be!" Tucker said.

Jack screamed. "NOOOO!"

"Danny! No" Maddie lunged;Jack grabbed her before she can fall out of the car and she let him pull her back to him, crying.

The globs of orange gelatin that were Danny splatted to the ground.

Freakshow held a hand up to his ear. "What's that? You want more?"

The clowns in the audience cheered enthusiastically.

"Well, since you insist, I'll give you more. Much more!" Freakshow said.

He blasted a red beam of light into the sky, which pulsed out in expanding rings. As the rings of light moved outward, nearby grain turned into snapping carnivorous plants, a tractor transformed into a tiny car from which several clowns emerge, a scarecrow turned into another clown, a barn turned into a circus tent, the heads of Mount Rushmore all turn into Freakshow's head, the Golden Gate bridge turned into a roller coaster, the Capitol Building turned into another circus tent, and the Washington Monument turned into a hammer game.

"It's all mine now. My revenge, your nightmare." Freakshow said. "There! A kingdom fit for a freak, and a freakdom fit for a king."


	48. Psychology

"It's all mine now. My revenge, your nightmare." Freakshow said. "There! A kingdom fit for a freak, and a freakdom fit for a king."

The coaster was rattling by again, its occupants still screaming, then pan down to Puddle!Danny. The goop reforms into a sick-looking Danny. Turning and gasping at the sound of his friends and family screaming, he bucks up and goes flying after it where Khione was fighting. When they reach the flaming Jack-in-the-Box, she managed to get there in time to put up an ectoshield to block the flames as they passed.

"Thank you." Danny said.

"No problem. Get the Freak." Khione said. "I'll protect them."

"Danny!" Jazz said.

"He's alive!" Jack cried.

Jazz yelled back at Danny. "He has ghost envy! Use psychology!"

"Psychology? That's it!" Danny said.

"You go, I got this." Khione said.

"Thanks." Danny flew off.

He dropped his shield and we see the Jack-in-the-Box rise again behind him. Next we see its broken head crashing into the ground, and Danny flying after the coaster car again. He throws an ecto-blast at the stone hammers, destroying them right before the car passed through. Danny grinned.

Khione stayed out of his way as he put on a show.

Freakshow was suddenly humongous, looming up behind him. "Oh, no. You do not get to leave this world with a smile."

Giant!Freakshow tried to grab him, but Danny dodged. He continued to fly around as Freakshow tries to swat him.

"Why wouldn't I smile? So what if you're the most powerful human on earth?" Danny grinned. Freakshow trapped him between his hands, but Danny phased through. Danny continued taunting. "No matter what you do, I'm half-ghost, and uh, you're not."

"I am the master of all reality!" Freakshow fired a red blast at Danny.

"Oh sure, but can you do this?" Danny stretched and bent unnaturally and easily around the ray. Below, the clowns cheered.

Freakshow shouted at the audience, angrily. "What? No! [pointing] He's not the star of this circus! I am! Me!"

Danny cartwheeled through the air. "Ghost powers..." Danny vanished and reappeared. "ghost energy..." Danny flung several balls of ecto-energy around. "ghost, ghost, ghost!"

Khione suppressed a laugh. What a show-off!

The ectoblasts burned a smiley face into Freakshow's hat. On the monitors, Danny was waving cheerfully to the cheering crowd.

Freakshow was looming furiously over the audience. "I will not be upstaged by a ghost!"

The crowd booed, throwing drinks and popcorn at him.

"Ah, half-ghost, technically, but still way cooler than you." Danny grinned.

Freakshow slapped Danny out of the air. "Enough!" Danny crashed to the ground, dazed. "I may be losing control of the crowd," He kneeled down threateningly. "but I control all reality."

Danny, attempting shakily to get up, saw the Fenton Thermos Freakshow had thrown aside earlier not two paces from where he was lying.

"And if you think being a half-ghost is so cool..." Freakshow raised the Gauntlet, and all four gems blazed white. when the light clears, Freakshow had transformed into some crazy thing with four arms, wings, and a face on its chest. "What do you think of me now that I'm all ghost?" Freakshow roared.

"I think this just got a lot easier." Danny picked up the thermos, he sucked Freakshow inside.

"What? No! Nooo!" Freakshow cried

As he was pulled in, the Gauntlet popped off and shrank down to its normal size, landing on the ground.

Danny put the lid on the thermos. "Sucker."

The roller coaster riders were screaming and Danny looked up, remembering. They're almost to the end of the track. Khione was struggling to protect them about to run out of power. Gasping, Danny put on the Gauntlet and flew back toward them. Just as they flew off the end of the track, he blasts a beam of yellow light at the vat of acid, turning it into a giant inflatable pool shaped like a duck. The car landed in it with a giant splash, and everyone surfaced.

Danny landed on the side of the pool. "Are you guys ok?! Oh," Danny waved. "Hi Mr. and Mrs. Foley, and Mr. Lancer."

Behind him, a wall of green tattoo monsters led by Lydia rose up, Lydia growling furiously.

Lydia was turned into a fish, a mallet, an apple, a teddy bear, and then herself again. Screaming, she flew away. Danny flew to the center of the ring, raising the Gauntlet. All of the transformations Freakshow made to reality were reversed and the sun came out again. Danny landed and reverted to his human form, still wearing the Gauntlet.

Khione, tired, reverted back to Kurai and came over.


	49. Secrets

Danny!" Jack said.

Danny turned to find both his parents approaching with stern expressions.

"Young man?" Maddie said.

"I...I'm sorry. Gah!" Jack crushed Danny in a bear hug.

"We're very proud of you, son." Jack said.

As soon as Jack let him go, Maddie flung her arms around him.

"Oh! Oh, my baby boy!" Maddie Kissed his cheek.

Danny was nonplussed. "But I lied to you. Over and over for a really long time. If I were you guys, I'd be furious."

"Well, of course you lied to us. We never gave you a reason not to." Maddie laughed.

"All this time we've been yammering on destroying and dissecting ghosts." Danny put a hand on Danny's shoulder. "I'd have been terrified too, if I were you."

"We love you, sweetie. You." Maddie said.

"Whether you're ghost, boy, or something in between." Maddie confirmed.

"And I appreciate that." Danny hugged Jack. "More than you guys will ever know." Maddie hugged both of them, then Danny pulled back, looking at the Gauntlet. "Or will ever remember."

He raised the Gauntlet and there was a flash of blue light, leaving sparks around Jack and Maddie. They looked momentarily confused.

xxx

Later at the Guys in White headquarters. Agents K and O were sitting across from each other at a table, working on laptops. A siren went off and they both stood, looking around in alarm. A screen flashed.

"What is it?" Agent K said.

"A massive spike in ecto-energy." Agent O said.

They looked up and saw Danny Phantom, hovering above them wearing the Reality Gauntlet.

"That would be me." Danny said.

The agents pulled out their ecto-weapons and started to charge up.

"Ah-ah-ahh..." Danny shook his head.

He raiseed the Gauntlet, turning their guns into a tuba and a chicken.

"Here," Danny held up the Fenton Thermos. "a gift."

He tossed it down to them. It clattered to the floor and shatters, releasing Ghost!Freakshow. Danny used the Gauntlet to change him back into his human form. Immediately Agents K and O seized him. Danny started to leave, then paused.

"Oh, and from now on," Danny spoke sternly. "you're gonna leave Danny Fenton and his family alone."

"Why would we do that?" Agent K asked.

Agent K raised the Gauntlet, which glowed blue. "Because he's not the ghost you're looking for."

Agents O and K repeated mechanically. "He's not the ghost we're looking for."

Grinning, Danny went invisible and flew through the ceiling.


	50. Finale

Early evening at FentonWorks. Kurai and Tucker are sitting on the front steps. Danny stands in front of them, wearing the Reality Gauntlet.

"So that's it. I set everything back to the way it was before. Nobody knows I'm half-ghost except you two and Jazz." Danny Looked at the Gauntlet. "Now it's time to destroy this thing for good."

"Hey," Dash came up. Danny hurriedly hid the Gauntlet behind his back "Fentonio, Orlando, and Gone!" Dash and Paulina walkEd up to them, dressed for the beach. "What are you still doing in town?"

"Yeah, weren't you taking a trip to Loserville? Oh wait,"Paulina took off her sunglasses. "you're already there!"

She put her sunglasses back on and they both walked on, laughing.

"Oh, man. That's right. Everything's back to the way it was. Which means we should be getting ready for our vacation!" He turned eagerly to Kurai and Tucker, who looked less than thrilled.

"I'm all tripped out." Tucker said.

"Me too." Kurai said. "I still have to get used to my powers. And I'd like you to help me Danny."

She kissed Danny's cheek, and he grabbed her and kissed her.

"Yeah, you two are going to spend a lot of time together." Tucker grinned, teasing.

"For sure." Kurai said, and they kissed again.

"But we won't forget you!" Danny grabbed him in for a group hug.


End file.
